The Quest to Become a Pokémon Master: Enter Team Rocket
by Fires of Eden Red Rose Aurora
Summary: An accident happened to Ash which put him behind due to brain trauma, but he managed to get the starter he wanted. Ash will now head off on the long quest to become a Pokémon master with a faithful Charmander by his side. How will Ash go in becoming the greatest there ever was while struggling with a past brain injury? Based on the Games and Anime. ASHXDAWN. I Do not own Pokemon
1. The Journey Begins

**The Quest to Become A Pokémon Master**

**Here is a new story from me. I have the two Pokémon stories which I am writing together. I think I will update the chapters for both two at a time. The second chapter won't be too long, and the other story won't be either. I will use shared ideas between them, so expect similarities. This one will go from Kanto, orange islands, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh then finish in Unova. Kalos and Alola don't exist in this world.**

**Pairings are not my specialty, however, Ash and Dawn will be a pairing, then I'm thinking maybe May with Ritchie, but there are a few others I'd consider. I'm not sure about Brock and Misty though.**

**Basically, this story is a re-write of Ash's journey of how it should be. Unova is a surprise, but he will win the Sinnoh league. He will catch a few more Pokémon. **

**If you like, I can put the teams at the start of the chapter.**

* * *

_"Ganger, Shadow Ball!" A brown-haired girl with a red dress said. Her name was Rowena. A Ganger uses shadow ball and hits its opponent, Onyx, square on the forehead. However, not before Onyx manages to release a deadly Rock Throw, which sends Ganger flying backwards. Both Pokémon are down, but the trainers urged them onto their feet._

_"Get up, Ganger/Onyx!" Rowena/the other trainer James cried._

_The battle continues on, with Ganger coming close and using Lick; Onyx quickly retaliated with iron tail. The Onyx repeats the attack until Ganger faints._

_"And the winner of the 300__th__ Indigo League Pokémon league is James Samson of Goldenrod City!" the announcer cried._

"Ash! You need to go to bed!" the voice of Delia Ketchum called from the next room.

Said Pokémon league match had been on TV, with a nine-year-old boy called Ash Ketchum, watching attentively. Ash is an eager boy about to become a Pokémon trainer, and the next day he would be able to become one and would become one. He was hopeful he would be competing in the 301st Indigo League in a year's time. Due to the closeness of the two regions, they were held at the same venue and the leagues were held every two years: Kanto one year-Johto the next.

Ash lived with his mother Delia in a very small town called Pallet Town, which was also home to the regions most, if not the world's most famous pokémon professor: Professor Samuel Oak. Tomorrow he would be giving Ash a Pokémon.

"But, mum! It is not even nine thirty yet!" Ash whined as his mother entered the room.

"You're going to become a Pokémon trainer tomorrow: you need a good's night rest! You can't have a good journey without it, and if you go to sleep now, it will seem less time until you start," his mum said sternly.

"Alright," Ash nodded begrudgingly. He slowly stood up and turned the TV off. Ash then walked upstairs to go to bed, muttering dark things under his breath. His mother came into his bedroom after he climbed into bed.

"Goodnight, Ash!" Delia said, kissing her son good night. Then she picked his alarm clock up. "I have set your clock. Do pancakes in the morning sound good?"  
"Yeah, thanks, mum! Goodnight," Ash said.

"Night, Ash," Delia said, turning the light out before exiting the room.

Ash sighed: it would be hard to get to sleep! He was so excited, but if nothing else he would go to sleep from boredom.

##########################################

"Bring! Bring!" The alarm clock went off loudly.

"Wa! Augh!" Ash cried, sitting upright. He slowly moved over to turn the clock off. Ash then went to go back to sleep, but then he noticed the time, seven thirty exactly, and he remembered! Today was it! He was going to start his quest to become a Pokémon Master: the ultimate goal of most trainers competing in Pokémon Leagues.

To become a Pokémon Master, one needed to know everything and anything to do with Pokémon of all types. They also needed to compete in as many Pokémon Leagues as possible and winning one got you bonus points. He would also need to compete Pokémon Contests: he needed to win five ribbons, and get a top sixteen result in a grand festival. Ash thought he might do a few while travelling Hoenn.

Another activity needed to be done was competing in Pokéthelon. They were the creation of the Johto region, but apparently, they were starting to be held in Sinnoh now, too. Apart from that, a Pokémon master needed to have some kind of medical knowledge for caring for Pokémon. Other things are also required to know, but they are just some of the more time-consuming tasks needed to be done, including Pokémon Trials and one type contests. At the end when Ash has done all of that, he would get invited to compete in a tournament only held once every twenty years and entries only on the invitation, and all would get the title of Pokémon Master. There was a lot of work involved, but Ash thought it was worth it to achieve that dream.

Ash quickly jumped up and had a shower then got dressed, and grabbed his backpack before heading downstairs. As promised, his mother was in the kitchen, making pancakes. Ash was dressed in runners, blue pants, a black shirt, then a blue vest with white sleeves. To go with this, he had a green backpack with a normal coloured Pokéball on it, green gloves and a red and white cap.

It was a Pokémon League expo hat, which you had to send in a postcard to be in the chance to win. Ash sent in a lot of postcards: he honestly couldn't remember how many, but it would be above twenty. It paid off though, considering he now had the hat.  
"Morning, honey," Delia said, smiling at Ash. Then she pointed to a pile of stuff at the end of the kitchen table, "There are some last-minute things for your backpack. Breakfast will be ready shortly, and don't forget your medicine: take them before you leave."  
"Morning, mum! Okay," Ash nodded. He quickly went to take his medication, then he packed it in. As long as it didn't get too warm Ash could just keep it in his pack.  
He opened up his backpack and started putting the items in, with the medication going in last. They included a pair of rubber gloves, some snacks, and lots of pairs of underwear. Ash couldn't help but go red at that: his mum and underwear! There were a few berries useful for healing Pokémon, which had been grown in the town. And some revives: so that's what his mother had brought when she went to Viridian the other day.  
A little later, they were both sitting down to eat breakfast. "Do you have everything you need? Have you checked off everything in that checklist you wrote? Do you have that map I brought you?" his mother asked.

"Yes, mum!" Ash nodded, eating faster than a Lickitung. He fumbled with his fork and ended up dropping it.  
"Slow down, sweetie! There is plenty of time!" Mrs Ketchum said, alarmed. Ash was normally alright; however, it was times like this his brain trauma would show itself and make him drop a fork or trip over.

"But I'm so excited! And I want to get there early, just to be sure. Leaf said she wanted Bulbasaur, and I think Gary wants Squirtle, but I wouldn't put it past him to decide to want Charmander, and either of them could change their minds," Ash said with his mouth full. He was also bouncing up and down.

"Ash Ketchum! How many times do I have to tell you?! Don't eat with your mouth full! And bouncing like that is a sure way to choke!" Ash's mother scolded.

"Sorry, mum!" Ash said.

Half an hour later, Ash was out the door and starting on his way to Professor Oak's lab. Even though it was a small town, the home of Professor Oak was just out of town, and Ash lived on the opposite side to the lab; it took seven to ten minutes to get there.

Most the houses were average size, whoever some of them had quite large gardens, and the main veggie source for Pallet and the surrounding areas were grown in the centre of town.

Just as Ash reached the steps to the lab, he heard someone call, "Wait up!"  
Ash turned around to see one of the kids he had grown up with, running towards him. She had long loose brown hair, blue eyes, white and pink runners with knee-length blue socks. She had a red skirt which was between knee length and mini-skirt length, a light blue shirt, red backpack, and finally a white hat with a red pokéball on it. Her name was Leaf Green.

After the disappearance of Ash's father, Leaf's mother Donna had helped Delia with the grief and looking after Ash, which resulted in the two becoming good friends, which had been nice when Gary, Ash's past best friend turned into a complete jerk.

"Hi, Leaf!" Ash said, waving.  
"Hi: Gary is going to be disappointed: he was expecting you to sleep in," Leaf said, giggling slightly.

"Well, my mum did everything to make sure I'd be up on time," Ash said, tensing slightly at Gary's name.

The three kids had been friends since a young age, however, as they got older, Gary started to get unlikeable, and he and Ash were now always at each other's throats if they choose to stick around when the other turned up. After his accident, as his mother called it, (by the way, Ash had no memory of it,) Gary started belittling him, and their heated rivalry was set in stone.

It started with Ash being immature. Then it moved onto the fact he struggled to remember things, and then the fact Ash had to basically re-learn everything from walking to learning about Pokémon. He struggled with learning: he would forget things like the names and moves.

Ash had no idea what happened that day, and no one would tell him. What he did know, is he struggled to remember some of the things that occurred beforehand and compared to other kids his age, he was much more immature and he had to re-learn EVERYTHING! As a result, he was much immature and slower than the other kids of Pallet, and Gary teased and sometimes even bullied him because of it.

"Shall we walk up together?" Leaf said, breaking Ash out of his musings.

"Yeah, lets," Ash nodded excitedly, and the soon-to-be Pokémon trainers walked up the stairs.

They walked up the rather steep stairs, then they were at the Professor's front door. As Ash went to knock, Leaf shook her head and said, "Don't: he's expecting us and probably wouldn't hear anyway, you know how deaf he can be."  
Ash nodded, and instead opened the door before making way for Leaf to go through: now Ash thought about it, Professor Oak had said that the last time they met. With Leaf in the lead, they walked inside the Professor's house to the upstairs floor. From there, they kept walking until they found another staircase which went up to the lab.

Professor Oak had several labs scattered in varies different spots of his property, and this was just the one they had been asked to collect their Pokémon from. Ash and Leaf entered the right on nine twenty, right on the agreed time. Gary was already here, and he looked shocked to see Ash.

"So, Ashy boy's here on time: that's a surprise," Gary said dismissively.  
As Ash opened his mouth to make a retort, Professor Oak started speaking. "Gary, be nice. Your all starting today, so could you just be nice for the next hour? You too, Ash," Professor Oak said sternly.

"Yes, professor/gramps," both boys nodded.

"Right, let's hurry along, as an older boy is coming today, and I want to send you guys off before he arrives. So, as you know, we have the three Pokémon, Bulbasaur, Squirtle and Charmander. They are just on this table over here," Professor Oak said, walking to the far side of the room where there were three Pokéballs in a row. On it with the three Pokémon, were four Pokédexes. The three kids and the professor gathered around.

"So, who wants to go first?" Professor Oak asked.

"I think Leaf should go first," Ash said.

"Ladies first and all that," Gary begrudgingly nodded. He didn't like agreeing with Ash, but he did think Leaf should go first.

"Thanks," Leaf said, stepping forward.

"Now, Leaf: here is Bulbasaur the grass poison-type: she is a female, she has the moves Tackle, Vine Whip and Growl. Then there's Charmander the fire-type: he's a male, and knows Scratch, Ember and Growl. Then last there's Squirtle the water-type: he is also a male, and knows, Tackle, Tail Whip and Water Gun," Professor Oak said, throwing the Pokéballs of the three Pokémon to release them.

"Bulba!"  
"Char!"  
"Squirt!" the three starters cried as they were released. The three looked around, then spotted the three soon-to-be trainers, and looked with interest. Squirtle seemed to be the boldest of the group, going up and examining all three of them. Bulbasaur was quite shy: she just stayed on her spot, looking a little nervous: she even hid behind the professor briefly at the start. Charmander was very sweet natured, but not quite as bold as Squirtle, and didn't go that close, but he did go basically right up to them.

"These three are fairly friendly Pokémon: they will get friendlier and more used to you as time goes on. These are some of the gentlest and easy-going specimens of Pokémon around, which is why they're my starters for trainers like you," Professor Oak said.  
"I thought Squirtle and Charmander wouldn't be able to learn Water Gun and Ember until they were a little more on with the training," Gary commented.

"Yes, however sometimes you can breed them to have moves different from their normal move set at birth, and that's what the case is here. Some years I have had a starter Charmander know Dragon Rage and a Squirtle Ice Beam," Professor Oak said.

"Why's that, professor?" Ash asked.

"That's just how it works. No one has quite been able to work out which moves the offspring will know, but there is a general belief they will know certain moves. We do not, however, understand why they are sometimes born with really exciting moves. Lapras is a fine example: a lot of breeders say that they have had them born knowing surf, thunderbolt, psychic and ice beam among others. Pokémon breeding is always surprising!" Professor Oak said.

"Sure, does sound it," Ash and Gary nodded.

"Ah. Right, I should make a decision about which one I want: they're all so lovely though!" Leaf said, looking between the three starters. Then Leaf said, "I think I might go with my original choice: Bulbasaur."  
"Bulba?" Bulbasaur said, approaching Leaf slowly.

"What do you say? Wanna come with me?" Leaf asked, kneeling down and holding her hand out.

"Bul!" Bulbasaur nodded.

"Right! Bulbasaur, I choose you!" Leaf said, gently picking Bulbasaur up.

"Here is her Pokéball, and your Pokédex," Professor Oak said, handing Leaf a Pokéball and an object that was easily identifiable as the Kanto Pokédex.  
"Thanks, professor!" Leaf said smiling broadly.

"Now, who's next?" Professor Oak asked.

"I'll go last, professor," Ash said, believing it would be easier. He could also make sure Gary wouldn't pull the guilt trick of wanting the starter Ash to choose.

"So, which one will your choice, Gary?" professor Oak asked as Gary came up to the two starters. Leaf had opened her Pokédex and was now registering her starter, and probably scanning Squirtle and Charmander right after.

"That's easy, gramps! I choose, Squirtle!" Gary said, picking Squirtle up. Squirtle seemed to be really happy about this.

"Well, here you go, your Pokédex and Squirtle's Pokéball," the professor said, handing Gary a Pokéball and Pokédex.

"Thanks, Gramps," Gary said. Then he too opened his Pokédex.

"Right, Ash: it looks like this Charmander is yours," Professor Oak said as Ash walked up.

"That's fine, thanks: I wanted Charmander anyway," Ash said. Charmander looked at Ash with curious eyes.

Then it cried, "Char!" and approached Ash.

"It is interesting how these three seem truly taken by you guys. It is almost as if you were fated this way," Professor Oak remarked.

"Thank you, professor," Ash nodded. Then he asked Charmander, "You alright coming with me?"  
"Cha," the fire Pokémon nodded.

"Well then, I choose you, Charmander!" Ash said, picking his first Pokémon up like the other two had.

As Ash went on to tell Charmander what a great team they were going to be, Gary exclaimed, "Grandpa! My name's not Damien! I know you have trouble with my name, but the Pokédex even as a picture in it of the trainer it belongs to! So, there's no excuse!" Ash sniggered.

"Oh, sorry, Gary: looks like I gave you the Pokédex for the boy from Saffron who is coming sometime this morning. That reminds me, I don't have a normal starter Pokémon for him: all well, I will find something. Hold on," Professor Oak said, quickly looking at the other two Pokédexes. He handed one to Ash, then said, "Here's yours, Gary."

"Thanks," Ash nodded.  
"Thanks," Gary sighed, handing Damien's back. Meanwhile, Ash had been registering the three starters.

"Right, here are six Pokéballs each: you all know the rule of carrying up to six, and Pokémon caught above that get sent back here," Professor Oak said, bending down to underneath where the Pokémon had been and pulling out six. He handed those to Leaf, then he got another six for Ash and Gary.

"We're all set to start!" Leaf exclaimed excitedly.

"Are there any questions?" Professor Oak asked.

"No, Professor," the three shook their heads.

"Great: you guys can get going. Keep an eye out for Team Rocket: they went underground a few years back, but they seemed to have come back. We are still finding information about what exactly they are doing, but please keep away from them, as they have tried to steal people's pokémon. The main ones to look out for are: Jessie, James, Butch and Cassidy," Professor Oak nodded. "By the time you reach the next town, your names will be in the Pokémon League database."

"Thank you, and bye! We will," the three said. Before they moved though, the Professor spoke again.

"The Pokédex has both Johto and Kanto Pokémon in it, and it has all the moves your Pokémon learn and be taught in it, as well as extensive information and tips on the various species and how to train them. Take full advantage, please. Now, goodbye!" Professor Oak said quickly. They all thanked the Professor and nodded, then they tried to leave again, but the Professor stopped them again.

"Wait! Now, you guys know the basics about evolution, correct? Most grow up and evolve, some evolve nearby certain rocks or places with a lot of electrical charges. Then some need to know moves and stones," Professor Oak said quickly.

"We did know," Leaf said.

"But thanks anyway," Ash said.

"Now, good luck: A year and a half to the next Kanto League," Professor Oak said, and the three trainers nodded.

Right then, a blue-haired boy with dark eyes who at first glance looked about fourteen, but then Ash quickly realised he was closer to twelve then fourteen. He was with two adults who looked very similar.

"Ah, Damien Foster and Mr and Mrs Foster," Professor Oak said smiling. "You three, this is Damien Foster, and his parents Mr and Mrs Foster. Foster family, this is Leaf Green, my grandson, Gary Oak, and Ash Ketchum: they are starting their journey today also."  
"Nice to meet you," Mrs Foster nodded.

"Yes, very nice. We are so glad our son as some people to start his journey with," Mr Foster said.

"Honestly, what a set of pathetic kids: couldn't you have found them better ones?!" Damien sneered.

"Why you!" Ash and Gary growled.

"Damien!" Mrs Foster hissed.

"Gary! Ash!" Professor Oak and Leaf warned.

"Now, we will let Leaf, Ash and Gary get on their way: you three wait here, and I will get you some Pokémon to choose from, Damien," Professor Oak said.

"Bye, Professor!" Leaf, Gary and Ash said, then they hurried out while Professor Oak left to get Damien pokémon.

Halfway to the exit of Professor Oak's home, they split up with Gary. "Well, smell you later, Ash! Bye, Leaf! I will be sure to battle you both next time we meet: try to train and catch Pokémon so you're not too easy to beat!" Gary said, waving.

"Don't be too sure, Gary! I will be laughing when I defeat you without breaking a sweat!" Leaf challenged. Then Gary ran off to go and get the car he had been bragging about.

"That Gary!" Ash cried angrily. If it were possible, Leaf was sure Ash would be steaming with anger.

"Ash, don't let him get to you," Leaf said, trying not to giggle.

They continued out of the building. "That Damien was horrible! He looked so old, too!" Leaf exclaimed as they walked down the stairs just outside the Oak residence.

"Sure did: he looked about fourteen, didn't he? But I get the impression he must be younger than that, not certainly not ten-years-old. He was so unpleasant Gary actually seems like a sweet kid. Where are you off to now, Leaf?" Ash asked.

"I am going to show mum my Bulbasaur, then head to Viridian City. What about you?" Leaf asked.

"I am going to head out now and challenge the gym there as soon as possible!" Ash said, jumping up. He added quickly, remembering what people said about the Viridian gym, "The Pewter City one I mean!"

When they were down the bottom of the stairs, Ash said, "When we next meet up, let's battle!"  
"That I can agree to. Until then, safe travels, Ash!" Leaf nodded.

"You too, Leaf!" Ash said, walking in the opposite direction.

Ash and Charmander walked through Pallet until they reached his home. His mother was just outside, looking as though she was waiting for Ash. Ash was surprised: but maybe she wanted to see Ash just before they left.

"You got Charmander?" his mother asked, coming out of the garden and onto the road.

"Yep. Charmander, this is my mum," Ash said.

"Char!" Charmander said.

"Oh, aren't you cute!" Delia cried, bending down and giving Charmander a little pat. "You look after Ash, okay?"

"Char!" Charmander nodded.

"And, Ash: you look after Charmander," Ash's mother said, standing up.

"Sure, mum," Ash nodded.

"Well, see you, sweetie!" she said, pulling Ash into a hug.  
"Wha! Mum!" Ash cried. But he did hug her back. Charmander sniggered.

"Good luck!" his mother said, releasing him.

"Thanks, mum! I'll call as soon as I reach the next town!" Ash nodded.

"Great! I look forward to it. Don't forget to-" Delia nodded.

"Yes mum, I won't! Right, come on, Charmander!" Ash said, not letting his mother finish the sentence. Then he looked at Charmander. Charmander nodded, then the two ran off toward where Viridian City was, with Ash stumbling a couple of times; he even fell over.

Ash wanted to get out of the town before Gary drove past in his stupid car. While cars went on a different track between the towns to the trainers on foot, bikes and Pokémon. Ash still had a good chance of meeting him before entering route 1, which he really didn't want to do.

* * *

**This world the four starting are: Damien, Leaf, Gary and Ash. One question for everyone: Would you prefer the regions in separate stories? I have most the story planned out, so suggest things if you like, however, depending on what they are might depend on what I decide to add.**

**I have a reason for Ash's immatureness. To not give too much away, there was an incident which gave Ash brain trauma, and Gary to become distance. It probably happened when they were about six.**

**There will be aura.**


	2. It's the First step Up the Ladder

**Chapter 2: It's the first step up the ladder**

**Here's pokémon list:  
Ash: Charmander**

**Leaf; Bulbasaur.**

**Gary: Squirtle.**

**Here's the second chapter. Note: egg moves don't exist in this story, and I am undecided on TMs.**

* * *

Ash and Charmander didn't have to travel far before they saw the sign for route 1. There was an arrow-shaped sign just next to it saying, "_Cars and other motorised cars and circles this way. Trainers on foot straight ahead."_

"Well, this it, Charmander: the first step of becoming a trainer, which is the first step to becoming a Pokémon Master," Ash said stopping. He and Charmander started down the route almost straight away. Ash said as they walked, opening the Pokédex, "Let's see: according to this, Pidgey, Rattata, Spearow and Bellsprout live here."  
"Char?" Charmander asked. He wondered which one they were going to catch if not all of them.

"I think we are just going to travel through and not catch any Pokémon: we will wait until the forest, as there are more there and according to this, they will be stronger even though they may be at the same age and level and will turn out stronger," Ash said.

"Char!" Charmander nodded. Understandable, he thought.

A while later after they had been walking for close to an hour, Ash was glancing up at the sky when he saw a golden bird flying across the sky. It looked huge but amazing! "Charmander! Look!" Ash said, picking Charmander up and pointing.

"Char," Charmander said, also seeing it. He was mesmerised by the beautiful creature: Charmander didn't know what it was, but boy he wanted to meet it: hopefully, they would meet it, one day.

Right then, a rainbow formed behind the bird. Ash decided to pull his Pokédex out, overwhelmed with curiosity. "This Pokémon is unknown," it said.

"What? Does that mean it comes from another region beyond Johto?" Ash wondered as he and Charmander watched the bird fly off.

"One day, we are going to meet it: because it was so beautiful and powerful looking," Ash stated, and his partner nodded. Then Ash noticed a red bike on the side of the road, as he put Charmander down.

"Wow! Someone's left their bike here: I wonder if they're still around. Hey, hello!" Ash called. His mother had mentioned sometimes people stop and fish then leave and forget about their bikes, which results in them being basically abandoned. As he approached, he noticed there was a small path which went down to a river, perfect for fishing… if he had a fishing rod. He looked around, but he couldn't see anyone who might own the bike.

"Hey you!" a voice cried as Ash bent down to examine the bike.

"Wha?" Ash cried, standing up, and spinning around. He spotted a fourteen or something-year-old girl with short red hair tied in a side ponytail, facing him from down the small hill. She wore a yellow shirt which was rather short, blue shorts, runners, red suspenders, and she was carrying a fishing rod. She looked as though she was fuming with anger, probably because Ash was 'daring' to even look at the bike.

"Leave my bike alone!" she cried.

"I was just examining it because I wanted to know if the owner was still around," Ash said quickly.

"Char! Charmander," Charmander cried, backing Ash up.

"Sorry!" Ash cried.

"It's okay. I was a bit hasty anyway, just someone has stolen my bike before, then dumped it, and it looked like it had been fried when I got it back. You're just starting out, aren't you? I'm Misty," the girl said, picking up her red bag and walking up while putting her fishing rod away.

"Yeah: I am so excited, and I am going to become a Pokémon Master. My name's Ash Ketchum," Ash said.

"Nice to meet you. Are you heading to Viridian City?" Misty asked.

"Yes," Ash nodded. "Nice to meet you, Misty: I am going to head off now," Ash said, waving.

"Wait! I'm coming too!" Misty said, quickly grabbing her bike and getting on it to catch up with Ash. Ash had gotten a fair way by this point, she amazed Ash.

"Err, why?" Ash asked as they walked (Misty had gotten off the bike.)

"I want to get back to Viridian City before night, too. Anyway, there are a lot of Spearow around, which would make quick work of your Charmander," Misty said.

"Are you calling Charmander weak?" Ash said, getting defensive. He didn't like being called weak, or his Pokémon.

"No, I am just stating that Spearow are very aggressive and attack in big flocks," Misty said, rolling her eyes at him.

"Are they?" Ash nodded. He flushed at his mistake: maybe he should not have been so hasty.

"For someone who wants to become a Pokémon Master you don't seem very knowledgeable," Misty commented.

"Come to think of it, I did know that. Sorry, Misty," Ash said, remembering something.

The two walked along the route, making idle chit-chat, and keeping an eye out for Spearows. There were a few, but Charmander and the two trainers avoided them, so the Spearows did not cause any issues.

Just after it got dark, they reached Viridian City. "Are you going to challenge the gym?" Misty asked.

"Later on. It is hardly ever open, and Professor Oak said to avoid the gym unless you have six badges at least," Ash said.  
"That's odd: I was always told gyms were set up so a trainer at any level could drop by," Misty said frowning.

"Where do you come from, Misty?" Ash asked.

"The other side of Viridian Forest, but I haven't really come to this side of the forest much," she explained.

"Ah, right," Ash nodded.

"Hey, here's a wanted poster! I wonder what these crooks do?" Misty said as they passed the police station.

"Wow, they look kind of weird," Ash commented. On the poster was a man with blue hair, a woman with long red hair which must have had wire in it to maintain the position, and a Meowth. The two humans were wearing white clothing with a red R on them. You couldn't make out their faces though, they were darkened. They were wanted for stealing Pokémon, or attempting to, apparently.

"They're from Team Rocket," Misty said. The two continued to the Pokémon Centre.  
"Hey! Hold it right there!" a voice quickly cried.

Ash and Misty stopped in their tracks and turned around to see the person who was probably the much talked about Officer Jenny, dressed in her blue and right uniform. "What?" Ash asked, looking confused.

"Can I see your identity, please? And where did you get that Pokémon?" Officer Jenny asked.

"I got it from Professor Oak, and here," Ash said, opening his pokédex.

"This Pokédex belongs to Ash Ketchum. If lost or stolen, my data will also be. Please return me to Professor Oak or Ash Ketchum if found," the Pokédex spoke.

"Here," Misty said, pulling out something that looked like a blue badge in a water drop shape.

"You're a gym leader?" Ash asked.

"Yes: our badges are our identification," Misty explained.

"Can we battle?" Ash asked.

"No: at least wait until you have got some experience," Misty said.  
"Okay, you two can go," Officer Jenny nodded.

"Thanks," Ash said. Then the two continued to the Pokémon Centre.

As Officer Jenny returned inside the police station, a hook came down and pulled the poster into the air, up to a Meowth shaped hot air balloon. In the balloon, were the three on the poster.

"Our wanted poster: how flattering," the woman commented.

"Flatting? It makes me look terrible!" the man exclaimed.

"Then you should be happy they captured the real you," the red-head remarked.

"Exactly," the blue-haired man said, pulling out a red rose: where did that come from?!

"Would you two stop talking about the stupid poster! We have to plan to steal the Pokémon from the Pokémon centre! Otherwise, the boss will not promote us," the Meowth said.

"Don't worry about that: it will be easy," the man said. Then the balloon took off, toward the Pokémon Centre.

When they reached the Pokémon Centre, they gave their Pokémon to Nurse Joy and booked a room each. Ash then went to call his mother while Misty did something… Ash was not sure what.

"Hey, mum: I'm at Viridian!" Ash said when his mother appeared on the screen. She looked like she had just had a shower.

"Really? That's great! It took your father three days to get there!" his mum said cheerfully.

"Your joking, right? I might forget things, but the route is as straight as a power pole!" Ash said in disbelief. All the wondrous things Ash's father, Red Ketchum did, like becoming one of the most renowned Pokémon trainers, it seemed finding his way around Kanto was not included in that.

"Nope: sense of direction was never his strong point, though. How's Charmander?" she asked. She didn't like talking about Red, her husband. It had been all fine one day, then the next he vanished without a word. She didn't know what had happened: she didn't know if he was kidnapped, killed, or simply had run off.

"He's fine: just getting a check-up. By the way, mum, I saw this golden bird on the way here, but the Pokédex didn't know what it was," Ash asked.

"Really? You should call Professor Oak about it: he'd know. I have never known much about Pokémon," his mum admitted.

"I think I might," Ash nodded.

"Anyway, young man! It is getting late, you need to get to bed. Call me when you reach the next town, please. And don't forget to-" His mother said. Ash cut her off again.

"Alright, alright, mum! I will do it! See you," Ash nodded. After his mother had hung up, he rung Professor Oak.

"Ah, Ash: I see you reached Viridian City," Professor Oak said.  
"Yes, I did, Professor. I wanted to ask you about a golden bird earlier, and the Pokédex didn't know what it was!" Ash exclaimed, being as excited as a seven-year-old.

"Really? Where was it?" Professor Oak asked, looking intrigued.

"Flying over route 1: and a rainbow formed after it!" Ash said.

"Now that is interesting. According to legend, the Pokémon Ho-Oh forms rainbows where it flies: and it is said to be rainbow or golden when seen from a distance, too. I believe you may have seen that Pokémon. Tell you what, I will ring my good friend Professor Elm in Johto: he will know more," Professor Oak said.

"Okay, Professor: thank you. Why wasn't it in the Pokédex?" Ash nodded.  
"Alright. Well, apart from the name and vague appearance of it, we know nothing, which is why we don't have an entry for it. Now, I better go now: don't forget to catch Pokémon soon! Gary already has seven! Stay well," the Professor said.

"I won't," Ash nodded. Then he ended the conversation with Professor Oak while muttering, "That Gary!"

"Ash! Your Charmander is ready to be picked up!" Misty called.

Ash turned around to see Misty with Nurse Joy at the front desk. "Coming!" he said, running over.

"Charmander!" Ash said.

"Char!" Charmander cried, jumping into Ash's arms.

"Charmander is in good health, Ash," Nurse Joy said.

"Thanks, Nurse Joy," Ash nodded happily.

Just as Misty went to say something, the people who were on that wanted poster burst in carrying what looked like a handy little vacuum cleaner.

"Prepare for trouble," the woman said.

"Make it double," the man said.

"To protect the world from devastation!"  
"To Unite all people in our nation!"  
"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"  
"To extend our reach to the stars above!"

"Jessie!" the female cried.

"James!" said the man.

"Meowth's the name!" the Meowth cried.

"It talked!" Nurse Joy, Ash and Misty all exclaimed.

"Team Rocket blasting off at the speed of light!"  
"Surrender now or prepare for a fight!"  
"Meowth, that's right!" the three finished off, striking a pose.

"Hand over the Pokémon now, or we will be forced to suck them up!" Jessie said.

"A talking Meowth? You're kidding, right?! But, no!" Ash cried.

"Koffing, use Smokescreen!" James said, releasing the purple gas Pokémon that was known as Koffing.  
"Ekans! Come out!" Jessie cried, releasing the purple rattlesnake.

"You go and try and protect the Pokémon! We will handle them!" Misty said to Nurse Joy. The nurse nodded and ran off as Misty released a brownish star-shaped Pokémon.

"Charmander! Use Ember on Koffing before it can use Smokescreen!" Ash called.

"Char!" Charmander cried, releasing Ember.

"Koffing!" Koffing cried in pain: the attack only just hit, and a little bit of smokescreen was let out, but not enough to obstruct their vision too much. The fire-type attack on the poison gas Pokémon caused an explosion which meant Koffing had fainted. Fire was not super-effective against poison, but due to Koffing being filled with poisonous gas, a Fire-type move would cause an explosion attack effect, unless it had been trained against it.

"Staryu! Use Water Gun on Ekans!" Misty said as the lights flickered.

"Charmander! Make sure you keep well away from that water gun!" Ash called. He knew at this point Charmander could not have water touch his tail, as that would put it mostly out and certainly make Charmander faint.

"Ekans!" Ekans cried.

"Augh! Ekans, use Acid on Charmander! And don't stop until you hit!" Jessie ordered.

"Dodge it, Charmander!" Ash called desperately.

Charmander managed to avoid most the attacks, but the last few it missed and got hit by one or two.

"Ekans! Use Acid again on Staryu!" Jessie ordered.

"Dodge!" Misty called desperately.

Staryu managed to avoid both attacks, but only just. "Use, Rapid Spin!" Misty cried.

"Counter with Tackle!" Jessie said.

Both Pokémon hit and were sent off in opposite directions.  
"Charmander! Use Ember again then scratch!" Ash called.

"Ekans! Dodge!" Jessie cried, a little too late. She had Ekans flung into her face.

"That pipe-squeak Charmander beat Jessie and James?" The Meowth said in disbelief.

"Get in there and help, Meowth!" James ordered.

"Well, it looks like it's my turn!" Meowth said, jumping forward to battle.

Meowth started off with Fury Swipes to Charmander. Charmander managed to dodge, and Staryu hit the Meowth with Psywave. However, that gave Meowth just the opening to hit Charmander with Scratch.

It went on like that for a couple more turns, until Staryu managed to send Meowth back at Jessie and James.

"Alright! Use Water Gun/Ember full power!" Ash and Misty called. The two attacks were launched at Team Rocket creating a scold effect, and they were sent out of the building on to the path outside.

A siren wailed, announcing Officer Jenny was close by, and Jessie, James and Meowth panicked. "Looks like Team Rocket is blasting off again!" They cried, running off at an alarming rate to the right.

"Augh! I missed them!" Officer Jenny cried as she pulled up outside the Pokémon Centre.

"Char!" Charmander cried, looking happy.

"Are they gone?" Nurse Joy asked, coming out.

"Yes, they are," Misty nodded as the two adults joined them.

"Thank you, so much," Nurse Joy said.

"What did they do?" Officer Jenny asked.

"They helped protect the Pokémon Centre," the nurse exclaimed.

"In that case, you have my thanks also: give Nurse Joy your names so we can reward you both," Officer Jenny said. Then she said, "I better get going: I might be able to catch those thieves before they skip town."  
"Bye!" Ash and Misty said as Officer Jenny ran off.

The two trainers then got Nurse Joy to look at their Pokémon again before heading up to bed. She asked for their names so the mayor of the city could pay them for defending the centre. Neither trainer complained and were very grateful.

##############################################

"I take it you're going to head to Pewter City now to battle Brock?" Misty said as she and Ash had breakfast together, along with their Pokémon. The Sinnoh League final was being run on TV.

"Yep, that's right: I am planning to catch a ground or water or something on the way," Ash nodded. Then he asked, "What are you going to do, Misty?"

"I don't know: I should probably head back to my town, but I don't want to go through that forest again! But any other way would take weeks!" Misty said.

"Why not?" Ash asked.

"If there's one thing I can't stand, it's bugs!" Misty exclaimed rather loudly.

"I think I can sort of understand it," Ash said thoughtfully. Then he said, "We could go together! Just, I might catch one if that's not too much trouble."  
"Okay, why not? It can't be any worse," Misty shrugged. Then she said, "I think I'll leave my bike here, then. Maybe my sisters can get off their lazy fat butts and take it back to the gym for me, or get a van to do so."  
"So, which gym are you from?" Ash asked.

Misty didn't answer the question though, instead, she asked, "Have you thought much about what you want to catch?"  
"Yes, I have a few ones I want. Mostly though, I am just going to catch what catches my fancy," Ash responded. He was always happy to talk about Pokémon.

A couple of hours later, the two exited the Pokémon Centre, to travel to Pewter City, stopping at the shop to buy supplies. "Err, which way?" Ash asked.

"This way," Misty pointed, and they went that way.

"Are you wanting to defeat the gyms to become champion?" Misty asked.

"I actually want to be a Pokémon Master!" Ash said proudly.

"You do realise that is a very small part of it," Misty pointed out. A lot of people wanted to become Pokémon Masters, and few succeeded due to the long list of things that needed to be achieved.

"Is it? Wait, I knew that: but it is a good place to start. Sorry, I can have brain fades," Ash nodded.

"Well, I wish you luck," Misty nodded. She frowned: what could cause brain fades? Whatever caused them, it was not good for a trainer of any sort.

Viridian City was a large city, the fourth largest in Kanto. There was an area in the centre of the city near the gym and Pokémon centre which had all shops Pokémon related, and this area was off-limits to cars. The rest of the city was filled with houses and shops and factories trainers would probably not go to. The streets except for the heart of the city were wide roads with footpaths either side.

They kept walking in the direction of the forest and onto the next route, passing the motor pass. Which went the long way around the forest. They had to stop for a streak of a car, which Ash was sure belonged to Gary. Both were covered in a layer of dust. "Augh!" Ash cried as they continued on.

"What's the matter?" Misty asked.

"I am sure that was my rival, Gary!" Ash said, jumping up and down.

"Oh. Well, I wish someone would book him: he must have been going way over the speed limit!" Misty said annoyedly. Ash just sniggered. Misty then asked as Ash still jumped in anger, "How old are you, ten or five?!"  
Ash just glared at her as they continued on. On the way, two bug catchers challenged Ash to a battle. Ash managed to defeat both, and both had been sore losers.

When they were just outside Viridian Forest, Ash asked, "Are we ready?"  
"Char!" Charmander said.

"As ready as I'll ever be," Misty said, sounding unsure.

"Come on, Misty: it won't be that bad," Ash said. He and Charmander walked on.

"Easy for you to say!" Misty said, sounding a little grumpy. Then she followed him, into the looming dark Viridian Forest, full of bug type Pokémon.

* * *

**Yep, Misty is here. I feel she would be good for Ash, and was good in canon. Ash will mature, don't worry, and faster. When they return to Pallet we will find out about the accident. Next chapter go through the forest :)**

**In case your wondering, Ash will probably get Pikachu at the same time as he got Charmander, either that or it will be an Eevee he gets. It will be a while before next update.**

**There will be lots of things like Koffing exploding when hit by a fire move, and a water move hitting Charmander or another Pokémon with a flame tail and being knocked out.**

**Pairings decided: Ash X Dawn.**

**Requirements story to read: if it's not known to you, try Essence: Pokémon story. It's a story where Ash gets a Growlithe to start. **


	3. Samurai and beedrill

**Chapter 3: Samurai and Beedrill**

**Yes, I am back! It is I! Err, I will stop sounding like I am full of my own importance, quite the opposite really. If anyone has any better ideas for a cover, feel free to drop them. I could not really come up with any ideas, so this was the best. I know I am not the best drawer, but I think I do very well for having no teaching of drawing. As for my writing, I try my best for drawing.**

**By the way, I support farmers who farm everything: fish, cows, cooks, veggies etc. I am not one of those discriminatory people who don't like people who farm animals. I enjoy some chicken in my noodles and a good beef steak. I don't really like cows and sheep anyway, though I do feel bad eating chicken and turkey every now and then.**

**Teams:  
Ash: Charmander (male)**

**Misty: Staryu (Genderless), Goldeen (female) Starmie (genderless),**

**Leaf: Bulbasaur (female)  
Gary: Squirtle (male)**

**Jessie: Ekans (male)**

**James: Koffing (female)**

**Feel free to put in any ideas for this story, my sister gives me too many, so why not you guys?**

* * *

Ash and Misty entered Viridian Forest and slowly made their way through, constantly looking around. Both knew it was easy to get lost in here, and that was the last thing either of them wanted. Not to mention it was a little creepy.

"I don't suppose we will get out of here until a couple of days at the earliest," Misty sighed.

"Yeah. Hope we find some good Pokémon: this place is horrid and would have no redeeming features otherwise," Ash said, looking around. It was all very dark and gloomy, even in the middle of the day.

An hour later, Ash was starting to feel a little annoyed. If a bug even looked at them even a kilometre away or breathed at them, Misty would be screaming. She was allowed to be afraid of bugs, but this was ridiculous. And considering how many bugs there were, Ash's ears were beginning to hurt.

"Please, Misty, could you keep it down? Some of these bugs are a long way away," Ash eventually said.

"Char!" Charmander agreed.

"It's alright for you! You're not scared of bugs!" Misty almost screamed at Ash. Ash thought screaming at him was a little unfair.

"Please?" Ash asked again.

"Oh, alright," Misty huffed. She did, however, send out Staryu: Ash didn't mind if it made her feel safer and less inclined to scream.

Indeed, it did make it a lot quieter, which Ash was thankful about. Ash and Charmander could enjoy a nice quiet walk in Viridian forest, through a quite light part of the forest, until….

"YAAHHH!" Misty screamed. Ash and Charmander jumped and looked behind him to see Misty had fallen back with a Caterpie right in front of her. "I thought it was at least a Beedrill," Ash remarked.

"ASH!" Misty cried.

"Alright, sorry. Charmander, use Ember on that Caterpie! I'm going to catch it!" Ash ordered. Since it was here, he might as well catch it.

Charmander used Ember and hit right on target: being a bug, Caterpie was not very strong, so it fainted in one attack, not to mention fire was super-effective against bugs. "Pokéball, go!" Ash said, throwing a Pokéball.

"What?! Oh, that's right," Misty said, remembering Ash said he was going to catch one.

The Pokéball rocked twice, before donging. "Yes! I caught my first Pokémon!"  
"Great, a Caterpie," Misty said, unimpressed as Ash danced around holding the Pokéball. She had seen beginner trainers excited about their fast catch, but at the moment he was acting more like a seven-year-old on their birthday than a ten-year-old who had caught a Pokémon. Though, Misty's experience with trainers and their first capture was limited.

"Hey! Weren't you excited about your first Pokémon?" Ash asked, a little upset about Misty's lack of interest.

"Well, yes…" Misty admitted. Then she said, "Can you at least act your age?!"

"Why aren't I allowed to be excited?!" Ash said, looking annoyedly at Misty.

"Okay: great for you! I mean it!" Misty said quickly. She silently sighed.

"Well, thank you. Caterpie! Come out!" Ash said.

"You're not releasing it?!" Misty cried, looking horrified. She was petrified.

"I need to heal it, and how else am I going to train it?" Ash shot back as Caterpie came out. Then he said, "Why don't we set up camp here so I can go and start training?"  
"Alright: there's a pond over there, so I can let Goldeen out," Misty said, agreeing.

After Ash had healed Caterpie with some potions they had brought, he and Misty set up a tent and fireplace for Charmander to light later. After that, Ash and Misty split up to train separately. Misty was getting her Pokémon some air time, and doing some training with Goldeen. Ash meanwhile…

"Alright, now your registered, you know String Shot and Tackle, are a female and have Shield Dust: Well, I've seen worse," Ash said, getting psyched up more than he really should. Caterpie looked sad. "I don't mean it like that! Caterpie: Tackle on that tree, and just not too hard, because who knows what lives up it," Ash called.

"Cat!" Caterpie cried, rushing at the tree. As Caterpie hit, the two were suspended in the air for a while, then Caterpie fell down onto the ground.

"Oh no: this was going to be harder than I thought. Charmander, would you mind helping Caterpie get stronger?" Ash asked his partner.

"Cha!" Charmander nodded.

Ash then arranged a mock battle of sorts. Unfortunately, even with Charmander not really attacking, he still defeated Caterpie easily.

He swapped to a different tactic: getting Caterpie to run laps and practice her attacks as strong as possible.

"Here you are," Misty said, coming it as Ash healed Caterpie. Then she asked, "How's it going?"  
"Not well: Caterpie is very weak," Ash sighed.

"You know it won't be any good at battling until it becomes a Butterfree. What about Charmander?" Misty asked. Instead of screaming at Caterpie, Misty was just giving her a wary glance all the time.

"I am about to start now. Huh? What's that?" Ash asked, hearing a rustle. They both looked around until they spotted a rather large bird Pokémon.

_"Pidgeotto: the bird Pokémon. This Pokémon is full of vitality. It constantly flies around its large territory in search of prey."_

"Wow! A Pidgeotto! I have to catch it. Now, who should I use…" Ash said, looking at his two Pokémon. "Caterpie! Go!"

"He's seriously not going to use Caterpie, is he?" Misty asked, looking shocked. Then she realised: "He is! Ash! What are you doing you idiot? Pidgeotto is a bird, Caterpie is a worm, and in case you've forgotten, Mr Pokémon Master, birds eat worms!" Misty couldn't believe how thick Ash was being!

"What? Oh yes! Thanks, Misty: I had forgotten! Caterpie, just watch! Charmander! Use Ember!" Ash ordered.

"Char!" Charmander said, using Ember on the wild bird.

"I can't believe he forgot," Misty facepalmed. If only she knew the truth.

"Pid!" Pidgeotto exclaimed, being hit dead on. It then flew over, looking extremely angry.

"Here comes Gust!" Misty cried.

"Charmander! Dodge it!" Ash called. Then he said, "Use Ember again!"  
"Charmander!" Charmander said, using Ember again.

This time the Pidgeotto dodged the attack and flew in to use Tackle. "Wait until it gets close, then use scratch!" Ash called.

"That's risky," Misty said, looking unsure.

It happened like this for a while, until eventually Charmander came out on top: just as well, as Ash was starting to get panicked. "Pokéball, go!" Ash said, throwing a Pokéball.

As Pidgeotto was swallowed into the Pokéball, Misty said, "Wow, Ash is on fire today." She was looking a bit winded.

_Dong! _"Yes! I caught a Pidgeotto!" Ash cried, running to pick the ball up.

"Well done, Ash. Now, come on: let's get back before the bugs start eating our tents," Misty said hurriedly.

"Good idea," Ash nodded. The two trainers walked back toward where the tent was. It was starting to get dark, so while Misty made dinner, (Ash was making breakfast,) Ash did his training with Charmander and healed Pidgeotto.

As they ate, (after Pidgeotto had met everyone,) Misty said, "You're getting better rather quickly, Ash. Though, I am confused: sometimes you seem very knowledgeable, and others you seem like you know nothing about Pokémon."  
"Thanks, Misty. I just wish I could come with a good training routine for Caterpie. I have a lot of difficulties with my memory: it's supposed to get better as I get older, well, that's what I tell myself," Ash said, looking a little down and spinning the truth slightly. He was slightly unsure if what Misty had said was a compliment or not.

"I have never trained up a bug type for obvious reasons, but I am sure you will work something out!" Misty said, trying to cheer Ash up. It didn't work. "Well that didn't work," Misty sighed. She then frowned: something was really up with Ash.

"Do you want me to keep Pidgeotto out to keep the bugs away?" Ash asked.

"That would be great if you could, just don't leave Caterpie out, okay? The reason I am scared of bugs is when I was a child, I got covered in Weedles: Augh! I can still feel them," Misty said, shivering.  
"Wow, that sounds horrible. Sure, I will return Caterpie, I don't mind as long as you don't scream all the time," Ash nodded.  
"Char!" Charmander cried, jumping into Ash's lap.  
"Ah, Charmander," Ash said, stroking Charmander.

"So, are you going to challenge the Pewter Gym?" Misty asked.

"Yeah, but I have either got to teach my Pokémon a super-effective move or catch a water, ground or a grass-type first," Ash said.

"I could lend you some of mine," Misty offered.

"That's very kind, Misty. I might take you up on that if I don't find anything. For now, let's go and gets some rest. Return, Caterpie," Ash said, pulling Caterpie's Pokéball out and returning it.

"Now, Pidgeotto, can you please keep look out for bug-types?" Ash asked his new bird, and Pidgeotto nodded.

"Now, let's get to bed," Misty said standing up.  
"Yeah, Ash nodded. Ash didn't go straight away: he waited until Misty was out of sight before having his medicine. Misty spotted this and grew suspicious about what was wrong with Ash. He seemed as though he was taking medicinal drugs, which meant he had a condition of some sort. She grew concerned and resolved to find out.

######################################

The next day, they moved on again. "Hey, are they what I think they are?" Ash asked, seeing a whole heap of yellow Pokémon hanging from trees as they came into a clearing. They looked like they were in a cocoon of sorts.

"EECK!" B, b, bugs!" Misty stammered as Ash pulled out his Pokédex. She then jumped behind Ash.

"Great, Kakuna: um… let's go around another way," Ash suggested, recalling how Beedrill would keep an eye on the Kakuna.

"I can agree with that!" Misty nodded: she didn't need telling twice. They doubled back and found another route thankfully. They avoided the Kakuna, however, they're time in the forest would increase, which was not so good.

Along the way, Ash was training with Caterpie. He continued to work on the stamina and attack power, along with trying to make Caterpie more durable. It was doing something, as Caterpie had even started biting! Ash quickly realised it was Bug Bite his Pokémon was using.  
"Is that what I think it is?" Misty said as Caterpie started to glow. They were almost back were they before, before they headed down the path where the Kakunas were hanging out.

"it's evolving!" Ash cried happily.

"Char!" Charmander said in awe.

"Metapod," Caterpie said, revealing what it was now.  
"Cool! A Metapod!" Ash said, pulling his Pokédex out.

"_Metapod, the cocoon Pokémon. Hardens its shell to protect itself. However, a large impact may cause it to pop out of its shell. It is a female and knows Bug Bite, Tackle, String Shot and Harden."  
_"That's horrible!" Ash exclaimed.

"You have to be very careful with it until it evolves again: it will be not too long, though," Misty said.

"How I am going to train it? Don't Pokémon at this stage not move much?" Ash asked.  
"Most trainers use Harden in battle, and it does eventually evolve. You just have to be patient. From what I can gather, the only good thing about bugs is their easy to catch, and easy to evolve," Misty said, being the wise one.  
"Right, thanks, Misty. You're very helpful," Ash said gratefully.

"No problem: I'm glad someone appreciates me, unlike my sisters," Misty said, smiling. Then she muttered some dark words, presumably about her sisters.

They stopped again a while later, and Ash did more training. "Alright, so you know Gust, Sand Attack, Quick Attack and Tackle. Well, let's try all those moves full power!" Ash told Pidgeotto.

After giving Ash a look that said, 'I knew that, you idiot,' it took off into a lighting fast Quick Attack. Then it used Gust, Tackle, and Sand Attack. Quick Attack turned a bush into mere leaf dust.

"Wow! That's pretty awesome. Right! Let's practice using Quick Attack doing sudden inclines up and down," Ash called.

Pidgeotto complied, doing it easily. "Wow. I think that's all a little easy for it, Ash," Misty commented.

"Yeah. Right, let's try learning Whirlwind! Just flap as fast as you can! It is like a stronger gust that is almost at Hurricane force," Ash called.

After a good half hour of working on Whirlwind, with bouts of practising speed, Ash called it a day with Pidgeotto. It was making good progress on its new move, and he had started teaching it wing attack so then he could learn Steel Wing. Ash then released Metapod.

Medapod's training consisted of a lot of using the move Harden. Eventually, Ash worked out it could use Bug Bite, so he got Pidgeotto out so his Metapod could practice that move, much to Pidgeotto's disgust.

Ash quickly discovered that Pidgeotto was a proud bird, and he didn't like being used as a practice punching bag. He decided to switch to Charmander then, as his Charmander was happy to help Metapod get stronger so it could evolve. Ash did a little bit of teaching Charmander metal claw: his starter had to continuously use scratch until his claws started to get extra strong, then the next part came in. Once the claws were hard enough, Charmander could start trying to put a silver coating on them, which was what made the steel part of the move.

As they walked on again, Ash said, "When we get to Pewter City, I am going to get Charmander and Pidgeotto to go head to head in a battle."  
"That's a good idea," Misty nodded.

The rest of the walk through the forest was pretty quiet for a while. At one point, they were attacked by Team Rocket from the Pokémon centre. Unfortunately, this was an area full of sleeping Beedrill, and the Team Rocket motto would almost certainly wake them.

"Prepare for trouble,"  
"Make it double,"  
"Keep it down, or you will wake the Beedrill!" Ash cried, hushed.

"Never interrupt the team Rocket motto!" Jessie said angrily.

"Ash, let's get out of here!" Misty said, dragging Ash off. Ash and Charmander followed quickly as soon as they heard the sound of Beedrill's wings buzzing.

"Hey! Come back! Ugh!" James shouted.

A few minutes later, Ash and Misty heard, "Team Rocket's blasting off again!"  
"Seems like the Beedrill got rid of them," Ash commented.

"They did one thing right," Misty sighed.

When they thought they were safe, the two collapsed in a heap. "Well, they're gone now," Misty sighed.

"Yeah, that's nice," Ash agreed.

"Watch out!" Misty cried.

Ash spun around to see a sword pointed inches from his head. Attached, was a samurai. "Greetings: are you a trainer starting from Pallet?" the samurai asked.

"Yes… you know it's rude to point things at people's heads," Ash remarked.

"I challenge you to a battle! One trainer has visited me already. He especially came in to battle me! I was told of three more to come! I decided I would defeat them all!" Samurai declared.

"If you wanted to battle you could have just come out and asked," Misty said, looking put out.

"Misty's right," Ash nodded.

"Alright, I apologise: I was just doing what the other samurai told me," the samurai nodded.

"But, I accept your challenge. My name's Ash Ketchum, and that's Misty," Ash said.

"You may just call me Samurai. Does two on two sound okay?" Samurai asked.

"Sure: Misty, will you referee?" Ash asked.

"I'd love to!" Misty said, jumping up. At the same time Ash stood up.

A few minutes later when Ash and Samurai had themselves sorted out, Misty said, "This will be a two on two Pokémon battle. The battle will be over when both Pokémon on either side are unable to battle. Release your Pokémon!"  
"Metapod go!" Samurai said, releasing a Metapod, a bit bigger than Ash's.  
"Fine, I will use mine too!" Ash said, sending his Metapod out.

"Oh well: this I going to be a boring battle," Misty sighed. "Begin."  
"Metapod! Get close and use Bug Bite!" Ash commanded.

As Ash's Metapod started to inch forward, Samurai cried, "Use Harden!"  
Samurai kept asking for Harden, even when Ash's Metapod reached his and was attacking, Samurai still asked for Harden. Ash told her to keep using Bug Bite.

Half an hour later, Samurai's Metapod fainted from weariness more than anything else, and Ash's looked on the brink. "Samurai's Metapod is unable to battle: the victor is Ash's Metapod!" Misty said.

"Well done, Metapod. Return," Ash said, finding that a boring battle. He was surprised bug bite hadn't done more, but then he remembered bug moves against bug didn't do that much against other bugs.

"You battled valiantly, Metapod," Samurai said, returning his Pokémon.  
"Charmander, are you ready?" Ash asked. As Charmander nodded, Ash said, "Go!"  
"Pinsir, go!" Samurai cried, releasing his Pinsir.

"Begin!" Misty cried.

"Use Tackle!" Samurai ordered.

"Use your scratch attack! Try and practice what we have been working on!" Ash called.

As Pinsir and Charmander headed towards each other, two mechanical arms came out of nowhere and grabbed both Pokémon before pulling them into the air.

"Pins!" Pinsir cried.

"Char!" Charmander cried.  
"Pinsir/Charmander!" Ash and Samurai cried.

"Haha!" three people laughed. Ash, Misty and Samurai looked up to see a Meowth shaped balloon: Ash quickly saw it was Team Rocket, then they started their Team Rocket motto.

"Release them, now!" Misty cried.

"Why would we do that?" James asked while Jessie blew a raspberry.

"Augh: go, Pidgeotto! Release Pinsir and Charmander with Quick Attack!" Ash said, releasing Pidgeotto from his ball.

"Pidg!" Pidgeotto chirped. Then he used Quick Attack.

"Err, Meowth: are those arms bird proof?" Jessie asked Meowth.

"I am not sure," Meowth said, looking unsure.

Of course, Pidgeotto went through both arms. "Return!" Ash and Samurai cried, to save their Pokémon from a painful fall.

"Now! Pop their balloon, Pidgeotto!" Ash ordered.

"Pidgeotto!" Pidgeotto said, obeying.

As Pidgeotto flew through the balloon, the air started seeping out and the balloon went berserk through the sky. "Look's like Team Rocket's blasting off!" Jessie, James and Meowth all screamed as they disappeared into the sunset. Ash briefly wondered if they landed where there were some Beedrill.

After thanking Pidgeotto, Ash returned the bird as Samurai thanked him for rescuing his Pinsir. They continued the battle after that, and Charmander defeated Pinsir in a few moves.  
After getting directions from Samurai (they were about a day from the edge for the forest to Ash and Misty's excitement, as they had been in here half a week at least,) Ash said, "Now, no more challenging people by pointing swords, okay?"

"Yes, Ash. If you come through again, we will have to battle so I can reclaim my honour," Samurai said. Losing hadn't damped his spirit much when there were at least two more trainers to come through.

"I look forward to it," Ash nodded. Then he and Misty called as they walked away, "Goodbye! Take care!"  
"Bye, my friends!" Samurai waved.

Misty and Ash continued to walk until sundown and it was hard to see anything, where they stopped and camped for the night, with Charmander keeping watch this time. Ash did a bit of training with his Pokémon: mostly working on the moves they were learning.

During this last leg of the forest, Ash found a lot of berries, and a few other useful items, such as leftovers and potions. It seemed a lot of trainers dropped things in the forest.

By the next evening, they were out! "Yay!" Misty cried as she and Ash left the forests clutches.

They continued to walk until they got to the edge of the city, where they came across a lot of large rocks and met a rather odd man selling said rocks…

* * *

**Yes, I know, a slight cliffy: sorry! but it works so well. Do you like my version of the forest? I have tried to keep the interactions between Ash and Misty pretty similar, but Ash is a bit different, which will make them a bit different.**

**Reminder: this is a eventual Ash X Dawn, and there will be no Slash. I will have the fairy type, despite the fact Kalos and behind doesn't exist in this story. It's just I really like Togekiss being typed something other then part normal, and several other pokémon and moves I like are fairy. I might however change it slightly: fairy is supper-effective against dragon, and dragon is supper-effective against fairy.**

**Nothing else I can think of adding, so this will do. We will see Leaf shortly, and Gary again sooner than in canon, but not yet. By the way: for a Kanto gym for Ash to lose at, which one do you want it to be? the Viridian gym is too complicated, so it's out, as are the first two. I was thinking Koga, or maybe Blaine, or both?**

**Ash will lose a few gyms: one in Johto and Kanto, one or none in Hoenn, and none in Sinnoh. By Sinnoh, he should have enough pokémon that he doesn't fail at the gyms, as he will rotate in this story!**

**Other pairings, let me know if I have gotten confused with some:  
May X Ritchie? I am not decided, not Drew though.**

**Gary X Leaf**

**Steven X Cynthia (a pairing I have not read, but like the idea of, especially in this story.)**

**Misty X Rudi**

**Brock X Susie**

**And that's it for the time being. Please note there will not be much Max in this story. And Paul: he will be in it very occasionally, or OOC like. I would personally rather swap him and Conway around for Ash's main Sinnoh rival. Conway is a creep, but at least he is likeable. I don't really like Paul, and he is only passable when Ash defeats him at the league. It is my story, and I don't want to write much about characters I don't like.**

**I think that is all, so bye!**


	4. Pewter City and Brock

**Chapter 4: Pewter City and Brock**

**As I said, I will do updates when I have two chapters ready for posting. Thank you for all the support for this story.**

**I will include Mega Evolution, and Ash will probably get Y charizard, as I got Pokémon Y and while maybe it's not as good as X, I still really like the form. I will not include Z moves though, because I think they're stupid. Also, as far as I'm concerned beyond Kalos does not exist. For one, Ash is too experienced to need to go to school, two: everyone looks dorky, and half his friends are trial captains which I don't like. and finally, I don't like how Lillie started off. Ash still should have won Sinnoh, though. I quite like Tobias, but he should not have been there.**

**I have fun times ahead: my sister is having a shoulder reconstruction, which means for six weeks I am going to have all the duties of looking after the outside animals to do. Which will mean less writing because there's more to do, or more because I can do everything whenever nd I get everything done much earlier. At least I can choose which comps I can go to, though. Maybe have to try and go to one every week!**

**By the way, anyone who steals animal is a horrid person, no matter the reason. **

**Why do people hate review? It seems like a waste of time if you ask me. I don't really like the people who tell you there are mistakes but don't List any.**

**Rant over, here's the chapter.**

**Pokémon:  
Ash:  
Charmander, Pidgeotto, Metapod**

**Misty: **

**Starmie, Staryu, Goldeen**

**Leaf:  
Bulbasaur**

**Gary:  
Squirtle**

**Jessie:  
Ekans**

**James:  
Koffing.**

**I will supply the Pokémon for reoccurring characters. Jessie and James will leave team Rocket, so they will have some time there without appearing on this list. When Ash goes to Hoenn, Misty will leave the list, and so on, and any other re-occurring rivals of Ash will be on the list.**

* * *

"Hello! Would you like to buy some Pewter City Souvenirs?" a man wearing greyish pants, a yellow sleeveless shirt and a beanie said: which was an odd mix, and the beanie was odd considering it was quite warm here. The cold air from Mt Silver got blown to Johto rather than Kanto. He had black hair and a dark beard. He was wearing white gloves and was looking rather worn: to be honest, his clothes were a mish mash mess.

After glancing at the rocks, Ash frowned: what was so special about them? They just looked like normal everyday rocks, and they were way overpriced, judging by the price tag of one small enough to fit in Ash's hand. They might have more pewter in them then normal rocks, but that would be it. "They just look like normal rocks to me," Misty remarked.

"They might look like it: but their Pewter City rocks. The name's Flint," the weird man said.

"What's so special about them?" Ash asked.

"Their rocks only found in this city," Flint replied.

"But what is so great about them?" Misty asked, getting frustrated.

"I just told you," Flint replied.

"Can you give us directions to the Pokémon centre?" Ash instead asked, giving up on trying to find out why you would want to buy some of the Pewter City Rocks, this man was selling.

"Straight ahead into town, and you will eventually pass it," Flint said, his voice void of all emotion.

"Thanks," Ash nodded. "Here that, Charmander? We're almost there!" he then said to his fire lizard.

"Yay! I'm going to get to have a shower!" Misty exclaimed. "Thanks, Mister!"  
"Char, Charmander!" Charmander said cheerfully. Then the two trainers and Charmander all burst into a run into the city to the centre. Flint sighed: more people passing without buying.

"Alright!" Ash and Misty exclaimed. They both were now standing just outside the Pokémon Centre.

"Come on! Let's go in!" Ash said, eager to have a rest so he could get training for his battle with the gym leader.

"Don't need to tell me twice," Misty said as she walked forward. Ash soon followed.

"Hello, and welcome to the Pokémon centre," Nurse Joy said nodding.

"Wait, you look exactly the same as the Nurse Joy in Viridian City! How did you get here so fast?" Ash exclaimed.

"That's my younger sister! How's she doing?" Nurse Joy asked, overjoyed.

"Err, fine. How come you look exactly the same?" Ash asked. He had heard that all the Nurse Joys looked the same, but he had not believed they did or not to such a degree, until now.

"That's a family secret, young man: I can't tell you even if I wanted to. Now, do you have any Pokémon that need looking over?" Nurse Joy asked, giggling slightly.

"Yes please," both Misty and Ash nodded. After returning Charmander, Ash and Misty gave their Pokémon over to Nurse Joy. They then booked rooms: with that all out of the way, Ash and Misty went to have something to eat. Ash was going to ring his mother, but she could wait until he had had something to eat: he was starving!

The call to Ash's mother was pretty uneventful and very short: she asked him if he had taken his medication every day, and he responded yes: she also told him more would be arriving that evening: then she hung up, seemingly in a hurry. Just as he hung up, he noticed a poster for the Indigo League. "Wow! Their advertising for it already?" Ash said, surprised.

"Well, it takes most trainers eight months, at the very least, to get all eight gym badges, so they have to start sooner rather than later. Nurse Joy can sign you up now if you like: then you're free to start challenging the gyms whenever you like," Misty said, coming up behind him.

"Alright, I might just do that: good idea," Ash nodded.

Registering didn't take long: Nurse Joy just needed to scan his pokédex and that was it, basically. Then she offered him a badge case, and against his judgement, he took one: a blue one. At first, he was just going to clip them to the inside of his jacket, that was why he didn't have one: but then he realised that sounded like a great way to lose them, and Ash doubted many gym leaders would be happy to give him duplicates. If nothing else, it would be really embarrassing to ask.

After that, he was given a tour by Misty, and they went all the way to the gym. "Wow: it looks like rocks," Ash remarked.

"Well, it is a rock gym," Misty rolled her eyes. The gym was very old looking, and it basically looked as though it was made from solid rock.

"You're not planning to challenge Brock, are you?" a voice asked. Misty and Ash turned around to see Flint.

"Soon: I need to find a water Pokémon, or try to," Ash said.

"Smart idea: otherwise you'd stand no chance. Don't underestimate him: he's very strong," Flint said. With that, he walked away.

"Well, that was weird," Misty commented.

"Sure was. Can I go and see the rest of the town? Considering it is almost evening I might as well put off training until tomorrow: I'm sure my Pokémon won't mind another day off," Ash asked.

"Sure. Let's see: I think this way might be a good way to go," Misty said thoughtfully. Then she led him off.

All of Pewter City was stone-like and very rocky: most of the buildings were a similar colour to pewter. It was very interesting, and Ash and Charmander almost felt as though they had been warped to the cavemen era.

"And here we are, back outside the museum," Misty said as they stopped outside the museum.  
"I will have to go in there: one day," Ash stated.

"If you want to. If I recall correctly, it was pretty boring inside," Misty shrugged.

Ash nodded, then suggested, "Shall we go back to the Pokémon centre?"  
"Let's," Misty nodded. Misty and Ash then walked off towards the Pokémon centre.  
As Ash's mother had said, there was a parcel for Ash, and it had his medicine in it. Misty looked curious about the parcel, but thankfully she didn't ask: in Ash's mind, what would be more embarrassing than someone like Misty finding out he was on medication until he was fully recovered from his 'incident?'

v

The next day, Ash released all three of his Pokémon for a bit of training. After getting Pidgeotto and Charmander to battle against each other, working on increasing strength and move power, Ash started concentrating on helping Metapod evolve. The other two were practising their attacks and battle styles, both of which would make them stronger. Ash would give them personal training as soon as Metapod evolved. That way, no matter if he was training with Charmander or Pidgeotto, there would always be someone for the other to train with.

Ash didn't know what Misty was up to: he had parted ways from her temporarily after breakfast, where she was going who knows where. In all honesty, Ash was surprised when Misty announced she had some things to do in the city: the red-head had no reason to stick around, did she? So why wouldn't she have gone off home by now, or wherever she was planning on going?

While Ash was having the very boring pastime of telling Metapod to harden with the odd order for her to use Bug bite, Ash decided to try and work out what Pokémon which lived around here, and which one he would catch to use in Brock's gym.

There were a few Magikarps and Goldeens, however, he was guessing it would not be a water arena, which would make those two Pokémon next to useless. There was the option of Bellsprout: grass was good against rock too, and the Bellsprout Ash had seen had seemed to know a rather aggressive vine whip.

"Hey, Pidgeotto!" Ash called, leaving Metapod to her own devices for a while.

"Pidg?" Pidgeotto asked.

"I was wondering if you would like to help me catch a Bellsprout after lunch?" Ash asked Pidgeotto.

"Shaw," Pidgeotto nodded, and a small gleam appearing in his eyes. Ash wasn't quite sure what to make of that. In the small about of time he had known the bird, he'd worked out Pidgeotto was one for fighting, so maybe he liked the idea of that.

"Cha," Charmander said sadly.

Ash quickly worked out what that meant. "I'm sorry, Charmander, you are going to have to sit it out. You did help me catch Pidgeotto and Metapod though, and I really want you to focus on building up defences against rocks and learning metal claw to help me defeat Brock. I'm going to ask around at the Pokémon centre tonight to see if I can find someone to help us learn Focus Punch. I am pretty sure you are able to learn that move with some special training," Ash said, bending down and putting his hand on Charmander's shoulder.

That cheered Charmander up. "Char! Charmander!" Charmander said brightly. Charmander was going well: his metal claw was slowly starting to look like the move metal claw.

"Would you mind doing a bit of practice battling with Metapod, please?" Ash asked Charmander, and Charmander nodded.

"Right, you return, for now, Pidgeotto: you did good work," Ash said, returning Pidgeotto.

"Okay, Charmander, I just want you to use Scratch and growl, while I get Metapod to use harden. Judging by the increase in size and the stretch of the shell, I'd say she is about to evolve, which would be nice," Ash told Charmander. He recalled that some Pokémon had visible signs when they were about to evolve.

"Cha!" Charmander nodded, a fire burning in his eye. He would not let Ash down.

"Okay! Start off with scratch and harden you two!" Ash said, after releasing Metapod and standing where he would hopefully be safe from the attacks.

While it gave them both valuable training experience, it was the most boring battle ever. When they were both looking a little tired, Ash called it off.

"Charmander," Charmander said to Ash.

"Right, you want to do some practice on your own, do you?" Ash asked, guessing what the lizard Pokémon was asking.

"Char!" the fire Kanto starter nodded.

"Okay: I wouldn't normally, but you are very trustworthy so I will let you train on your own, Charmander. In the meantime, I might try and see if I can get Metapod to evolve. Just don't over do it, okay?" Ash said.

He and Charmander split up then, with Charmander going to the further end of the training area to practice, while Ash stayed basically in the same spot. Soon after he started training, Nurse Joy came out and went over to talk to Ash.

"I overheard you talking to your Charmander, and I wanted to share some useful training tips with you before you made a mistake," Nurse Joy said.

"What do you mean?" Ash asked nervously.

"Pokémon need to train by themselves because otherwise they don't learn new moves, or it becomes harder for them to do so. So, have a training session every now and then just let your Pokémon have a chance to do their own training at least once a week, more would be preferable," Nurse Joy explained.

"Oh, right: sorry," Ash said, putting his head down in shame.

"It's a mistake a lot of beginners make, Ash: so, don't worry. Not a lot of people know it," Nurse Joy said smiling.

"By the way, do you know of anyone who could teach my Charmander Focus Punch? I think Charmander can learn it with some special training," Ash asked, thinking it was worth a short.

"Well, my Scrafty knows it," Nurse Joy offered.

"Really? That would be awesome! Thanks! Wait, isn't Scrafty a Pokémon from another region?" Ash asked.

"Yes, she is an Unova pokémon, to be exact. How about tomorrow morning, earlyish? It is usually late morning before I start getting a lot of trainers," Nurse Joy suggested.

"Okay, that would be good," Ash nodded.

After thanking Nurse Joy, Ash got back to training with Metapod. Sadly, lunchtime rolled around and he was yet to have a Butterfree. Ash was going to stay positive though: Metapod must be close to evolving by now, surely?  
After leaving his Pokémon with Nurse Joy, Ash went off to buy lunch and then he started planning his afternoon. Apart from catching a Bellsprout, he didn't have anything planned. He was hopeful he would meet a few trainers wanting a battle before taking on Brock, too. Other than catching a Bellsprout, Ash only had training it a bit defiantly slotted into his afternoon.

After lunch, Ash headed out to where he had seen the Bellsprouts on the way into the town. As he had hoped, he met several trainers and battled them. His Charmander and Pidgeotto had some good battles, the hardest being Pidgeotto against a Ralts: a Hoenn origin fairy psychic-type. Charmander's flame had gotten stronger, brighter and larger, which meant he was close to evolution and getting strong. Pidgeotto had perfected Whirlwind during the battles, and Ash's wallet got that bit fuller.

When Ash eventually reached the Bellsprout, he had Pidgeotto by his side. He carefully surveyed the Pokémon. He was looking for the strongest looking Bellsprout. While he had other grass types in mind, Bellspourt was useful now and would be useful down the track, even if he caught others. Victreebel was a useful Pokémon, and while Ash wanted a Bulbasaur which were very, very rare in the wild, there was always room for another grass poison, and not to mention he might not find a Bulbasaur.

After scanning for a while, something caught Ash's eye: a blue elephant-like Pokémon with spots of red on it. If he was not mistaken, it was the Johto ground-type by the name of Phanpy: It wasn't too unlikely that the elephant Pokémon could have wondered over here from Johto, then been chased here: Beedrill were always chasing Pokémon. It did look a bit lost, after all.

Ash and Pidgeotto slowly crept around until they were close to the Phanpy: this was even better than a Bellsprout, Phanpy was an uncommon Pokémon, in Johto or not. Other than Mt Silver, they had very few other locations where they were findable.

"Now: use Wing Attack," Ash asked.

"Shaw," Pidgeotto nodded. He flew up and used Wing attack at the rare Pokémon by the name of Phanpy.

"Phan!" Phanpy cried in pain. Then it used tackle on Pidgeotto: it jumped on a few rocks to get high enough to try and hit.

"I should probably register it to find out any dangers for Pidgeotto," Ash said, pulling his Pokédex out as Pidgeotto avoided another tackle attack, followed by a good old growl.

_Phanpy, the long nose Pokémon, on level seven. As a sign of affection, it bumps with its snout. However, it is so strong it may send you flying. This Pokémon is male._

"PHANPY!" the wild Phanpy roared. Then the Bellsprout came over to help out the Phanpy Ash wanted to catch. He supposed the grass-types must be friendly with Phanpy: not uncommon.

"Pidgeotto, blow them away with Gust!" Ash ordered. "Then Quick attack on Phanpy!"

Pidgeotto obeyed the command. As Pidgeotto went in, Phanpy used Defence Curl then Flail.

Ash pulled out his Pokédex, and saw the Phanpy must have been fairly strong because it had to be above level five to learn Flail: he whacked himself: of course, it would know that! It was on level seven!

That was unusual: as rare as a Phanpy was, to find one in any area, usually ones like this: a grassland, but they were still rare: Donphan were the most common on Mt Silver, as the Phanpy were normally kept hidden from trainers, so either they were about to evolve if you found a wild one, or they were quite young and rebellious.

In this area of Kanto, of all the Pokémon were weak because of the weak trainers, it was thought: the strong wild Pokémon moved to where the trainers and other Pokémon might give them a challenge, or so Professor Oak believed. Ash was a little worried Pidgeotto might think him a weak trainer and not listen to him, then again, he thought that was only traded or gifted Pokémon that could decide to refuse to listen, but you never know.

Back to the battle, Phanpy was strong, but no match for Pidgeotto. "Use Tackle!" Ash said. His bird dodged the Mud-shot the Phanpy sent his way.

"Phanpy!" Phanpy cried, falling to the floor. This was Ash's chance!  
"Pokéball, go!" Ash cried as he threw a Pokéball. As it made contact, the device sucked the ground-type in. After two rocks, every trainer's favourite dong was heard by Ash and Pidgeotto. "Alright! We caught it!" Ash exclaimed, picking the Pokéball up.

"Shaw!" Pidgeotto cried excitedly.

"Thank you, Pidgeotto," Ash smiled.

After returning his bird Pokémon, Ash made his way back to the Pokémon centre to drop Phanpy off to be healed. He then went outside to the training grounds: he released his three Pokémon, then spoke, "Right, we have a new member who is currently being healed."  
Charmander cheered, and Pidgeotto looked proud: he was proud to have helped his trainer catch a Pokémon. Metapod was just being Metapod. "Do you still have some energy left for fighting?" Ash asked, and all three Pokémon nodded.

Ash nodded, then got Pidgeotto and Charmander to find each other: they could use any moves they wanted, as long as they practised the ones they were learning. Ash then found some targets for Metapod to use strong shot and bug bite on.

With all his Pokémon sorted out, Ash sat down and looked at Phanpy's details.

_"Phanpy is a male and knows, Odor Sleuth, tackle, growl, defence curl, Mud-slap and flail. The ability is Pickup_." As far as Ash could make out, they were about the best moves it could know. Plus, pickup was a useful ability which would give Ash the chance to find extra items.

Ash sighed: if it were not for the Pokédex, he wouldn't be able to remember any of this stuff, and he would be hopeless. With all the data on the device, though, he could check moves, Pokémon, and remember everything.

Ash then decided to check his other Pokémon's moves to recall what exactly they knew:

´_Pidgeotto is male and knows, Wing Attack, tackle, gust, whirlwind, sand attack, quick attack and learning steel wing. The ability is Keen Eye.'_

_"Metapod is female and knows, harden, string shot, bug bite and tackle. The ability is shed skin."  
"Charmander is male and knows, Ember, Scratch, growl, smokescreen and learning metal claw. The ability is blaze."  
_Ash was happy to see the two steel-type moves were coming along well enough that the pokédex recognised they were being learnt. He then frowned: since when had Charmander known smokescreen? He glanced up right then to see Charmander use said move: since yesterday in his private practice, evidently. He was glad Nurse Joy had explained about the training to him.

"Ash Ketchum, please report to the front desk," the voice of Nurse Joy said through the loudspeakers. There were speakers all through the centre so when a trainer's Pokémon was ready to be picked up, she could inform them as soon as possible.

"Keep going guys, I will be right back!" Ash told his Pokémon as he stood up and rushed inside, stumbling as usual.

"I am pleased to inform you Phanpy is in good health now, Ash," Nurse Joy said, handing Ash Phanpy's ball.

"Thanks," Ash said, taking it.

However, Ash's hand for whatever reason didn't listen when he went to wrap his fingers around the round object, so as soon as the nurse let go, the ball went tumbling towards the floor to be caught by his other hand.

"Careful," Nurse Joy warned.

"Sorry, my hands do that sometimes. Thanks for healing Phanpy: do you think he will be up for some training?" Ash asked.

"No problem. Well, health wise yes, but you should ask Phanpy first if he feels up to training. If your hand keeps up acting like that, I would go and see someone," Nurse Joy suggested.

"Will do. Thanks again!" Ash said, rushing out and almost falling over once.

As he exited the door to the training ground, Ash noticed Pidgeotto and Charmander having a break, he then looked to Metapod, but Ash couldn't see her! He frantically looked around for where his bug could have gone.  
"Bre," a Pokémon's cry chirped. Ash looked to just above him to see a Butterfree flying down to be at eye level: his Metapod had evolved! Ash was very excited.

"Yay! You evolved! Well done!" Ash exclaimed, acting the way he had when he had first caught Butterfree. He had a strong grip on Phanpy's ball though, thankfully.

"Bree," Butterfree nodded.

"Right, let's find out about you and what's changed," Ash said, pulling out his Pokédex.

´_Butterfree the butterfly Pokémon. Its wings, covered with a poisonous powder repel water. This allows it to fly in the rain. It is a female with the ability compound eyes, and knows: gust, String Shot, Bug Bite, Tackle and Harden."  
_"Wow, you learnt gust. But I thought bugs had to wait a bit before they could fly, though? Because their wings are all fragile and wet," Ash wondered.

Butterfree shrugged. She had thought that too, and she had seen that with the other bugs in the forest, but upon evolving her wings had felt really good, and looked dry and strong, so she decided to try and fly. She was very pleased with herself. Maybe she was just special.

"Just one of those things, I suppose. Let's go over to Charmander and Pidgeotto. I have Phanpy now: It's time for you all to meet him," Ash said. Then he and his bug Pokémon walked over to the fire lizard and the bird who were chatting to themselves.

Upon spotting the Pokéball Charmander and Pidgeotto got attentive were focused solely on Ash, especially Charmander. "Right, meet Phanpy, your new teammate!" Ash said, releasing Phanpy.

"Phanpy?" Phanpy cried as he came out. He looked around at them all and cried cheerfully.

"Phanpy, I am your trainer, if that's okay: this is Butterfree, Charmander and Pidgeotto: they're your teammates, and we're going to become the best team ever! What do you say?" Ash said.

"Phanpy!" Phanpy cried excitedly. He then said a quick hello to everyone. Despite their previous encounter, Phanpy didn't seem to dislike Pidgeotto too much, which Ash was thankful for.

"Okay, Pidgeotto and Charmander work on your moves for a little longer: work on your in-progress ones and try to make the others stronger. Butterfree, you just practice them when you feel comfortable flying around: feel free to do other training for new moves, too: any of you three. Phanpy, come with me and we'll sort you out," Ash said, thinking it was better to leave his Pokémon to their own devices.

Ash and Phanpy walked a little way from the others, then Ash asked Phanpy, "Feel up to some training?"  
"Phan!" Phanpy nodded.

Then Ash asked Phanpy to show him the moves he knew: Ash found a couple of spare targes for Phanpy to aim at. After seeing them all, Ash was impressed: they were all looking quite strong. However, the Pokédex said the Phanpy line was known for being quite slow, so he got Phanpy to work on speed and stamina in their training session.

An hour later, Ash and the four Pokémon collapsed on the ground, very tired and hungry. "Great job, guys. I will hand you over to Nurse Joy so she can heal you and feed you. Sound good?" Ash asked.

The four Pokémon nodded, Then Phanpy handed Ash something. Ash quickly realised it was a Sun Stone. "You picked this up, did you? Clever Phanpy," Ash praised, patting the blue Pokémon.

"Phanpy!" Phanpy cried happily. Then Ash pulled out four Pokéballs and returned his Pokémon. When he summoned the energy, or put it this way, he couldn't think of any more excuses to lie there any longer, Ash slowly stood up and trudged inside the building.

At the front desk, he met Misty; she was handing her Pokémon over to Nurse Joy for presumably the same reason as Ash. Misty quickly eyed Ash's fourth Pokéball and asked, "What did you catch?"  
"A Phanpy," Ash replied as he handed Nurse Joy his Pokémon.  
"Really? They're not common here, but they sure are cute. It should be useful for battling Brock, though," Misty said as she and Ash headed to the cafeteria.

"Yeah, he will be," Ash nodded as they sat down.

"When are you going to battle the gym, can I ask?" Misty asked.

"I want to do more training tomorrow, so maybe I will battle Brock in the evening, otherwise the next day. Then assuming I win, I will move on later that day," Ash responded.

"Good idea," Misty nodded.  
"Hey, Misty," Ash started.

"Yes?" Misty asked.

"When are you leaving? Or what I want to ask is, why have you stayed?" Ash asked.

"Truth is, I don't really want to go back to the gym, I want to travel to fulfil my dream to be the best water Pokémon trainer there was," Misty said. Then she said, "I want to keep an eye on you too: you have potential but you forget things a lot."

"Fair enough, we could continue to travel together then? Can I at least battle you at the gym you're from?" Ash asked.

"Sure," Misty nodded, albeit begrudgingly. Ash and Misty then got on to talking to some other trainers, and they shared training tips.

A little later when they had collected their fed Pokémon, Ash, Butterfree and Phanpy went for a walk. Ash wanted to bond with these two, which was why they were walking with him. It was a nice evening and he fancied stretching his legs.

Ash and the two Pokémon eventually made their way to a house behind the gym. Ash was looking around at the garden and design which was like the rest of the town, when he noticed an eighteen-year-old boy with what looked like a rather dark shade of brown hair and narrow eyes, surrounded by at least six younger kids, who all looked similar.

"That's Brock," someone said.  
Ash and his two Pokémon jumped a foot in the air, and span around to see Flint behind them. Creepo really: what kind of person sneaks up on other people?

"What does he do? Run an orphanage?" Ash asked.

"Those are his younger siblings," Flint said calmly.

"What?! Doesn't he have parents or something?" Ash asked, gobsmacked. How could someone have so many kids? What happened to their parents? Maybe one died in childbirth and the other of old age? These questions and about one-hundred solutions were running around his head.  
"Yes, but they both left," Flint said.

As he went off to say something else, Ash said, "Stop please, or I won't be able to beat him. Hold on, how do you know all this?"  
"Err," Flint said, looking awkward.

"Heheh!" Butterfree cried angrily.

"Phanpy!" Phanpy stomped his foot. They both had worked it out, with Ash soon to follow.

"You're his father, aren't you?" Ash asked, and Flint nodded meekly. "You coward! Why don't you go back?! You should! No one should have to solely look after their siblings if their parents are still around! It's your job!" Ash was giving him a good dressing down.  
That lasted for another five minutes, until Flint said, "Your right." He said it in a way which made Ash believe him.  
"I'm going back to the Pokémon centre now," Ash said. Then without wasting another second, he, Phanpy and Butterfree walked back to the Pokémon centre.

Butterfree and Phanpy couldn't believe the human? Too scared to go back to your family? What was he even doing leaving them? Phanpy knew good parents always stayed with the kids until they could fend for themselves. Butterfree knew humans were different, and while her family might leave the caterpies when they catch, but that's different. She had observed humans, and they protected their young for a long time: until they were ten generally, as they let them start journeys.

When Ash got back, he almost straight away went to bed.

* * *

**The end. Flint get's a good telling off in this chapter, and he deserves it, too. From writing my other story, I have only just realised how many more words adding another character needs. But I am enjoying them both: this one is quite close to Canon with plenty of differences, whereas the other one is written as a bit more of an AU.**

**BTW, were you expecting him to catch a Phanpy? He will get a different Pokémon in the egg for the race thing in Johto. Ash faces Brock in the next chapter, and Brock will join them, too. Sorry for those who are not Brock fans: and Misty will hang around for the same amount of time as in canon.**

**I will also plan a couple of out of region appearances from the Elite Four and Champion of Hoenn and Sinnoh. Not sure about Johto: I don't know yet if it will be Kanto and Johto share an Elite Four and Champion and Johto is only just getting its own, or there will be a separate on for both.**

**And sorry if the training is a bit boring, while I am/probably copying someone else, there is a limit to how creative I can be without copying someone else. If you recognise something, there is a chance the idea came from that, so therefore I don't own it.**

**WHo's excited for sword and shield? I am. I hope we don't have some "guide" like the Rotom dex again, and your "friends" are not too annoying, bossy or controlling. It would be kind of cool if you had to win a tournament before facing the elite four. I just want to be able to enjoy travelling around the region going wherever I want, with maybe running into members of the evil team and familiar faces every now and then. **

**I know they're probably going to do a Sinnoh Remake next, but I hope the remake Gold and Silver for the switch or crystal would be cool, too. I hope they make the Sinnoh Remakes better then the original, like what my family says they did for Ruby and Sapphire. But getting Spiritomb easier and being able to catch Shaymin and Darkrai without an event would be good.**

**I don't know where I mentioned it, but for most regions I will do a mixture of games and canon, except for Johto which will be basically games as there was not that much of a building plot in the TV series.**

**Who wants him to get a Rapidash? Should he just catch one, or after winning the flame-a-thon should what's her name (it's slipped my mind and I am too lazy to look it up) give him that one? Food for thought.**

**See you, and again, thanks for the support. Please check out the Rainbow Guardians if you need a read! It's my other Pokémon story**


	5. Showdown at Pewter City

**Chapter 5: Showdown at Pewter City**

**Here we are! This chapter is up. This chapter is standing at a 9059 according to ffn, which is long. A lot happens. Hopefully, (crossing fingers) it was worth the wait.**

**Pokémon:**  
**Ash:**  
**Charmander, Pidgeotto, Butterfree, Phanpy**

**Misty:**

**Starmie, Staryu, Goldeen**

**Leaf:**  
**Bulbasaur**

**Gary:**  
**Squirtle**

**Jessie:**  
**Ekans**

**James:**  
**Koffing.**

**Leaf has two more pokemon added in this chapter, and Brock will appear in the next list**

* * *

The next morning, Ash met up with Nurse Joy and Scrafty outside in the training area part of the Pokemon Centre. There were two other trainers out training with them: one looked half asleep, but the other looked pretty perky. Which was surprising, considering it was six-thirty in the morning. Ash guessed they were friends, and one liked to get up this early and had dragged her friend out with her.

Ash was yet to have breakfast, as he wanted to get training with Charmander as soon as possible, and he thought Breakfast could wait until after. He would not delay eating for himself and his Pokémon past the normal eating time, though.

"Right, I've told Scrafty what needs to be done, and she's more than happy to help," Nurse Joy said confidently. It was nice to be able to help out trainers in more ways than one for once.

"Great! Thanks, Nurse! Charmander, come out!" Ash said, releasing Charmander. He had put Charmander away in his ball for the night, as Ash was worried the tail would set fire to the room. Normally, Charmander liked to be out with Ash, and Ash liked Charmander out with him, and last night had been the first time he had been in his ball all night.

Ash decided he would go to the Pokémart today, to see if he could get something to prevent Charmander's tail from setting the world on fire: there were plenty of items in the shop, surely there was something along those lines? He wondered if everyone with a Pokémon like Charmander, Rapidash or Chimchar brought a fireproof blanket.

"Right, Scrafty: you ready?" Nurse Joy asked her partner.

"Scraf!" Scrafty nodded.

"Okay! Charmander, Scrafty is going to teach you Mega Punch, okay? So, listen carefully and do as she tells you, please," Ash explained, letting Charmander know what was going on.

"Char!" Charmander cried. Then Scrafty led Charmander a bit away from Ash and the Pokémon nurse then started talking and explaining what needed to be done, most likely. Ash was not really sure what they were saying, though. He didn't really understand pokemon.

"You have a memory problem, don't you, Ash?" Nurse Joy said as they watched Scrafty demonstrate the move.

"How did you know?!" Ash asked, looking surprised.  
"Anyone giving out starter Pokémon has to alert the league of new trainers with memory, medical and or learning issues: any issues that might cause problems and might need to be treated. They tell us and the gym leaders, and it needs to be updated every three years, but as long as it's a registered professor, it can be anyone then. Just visiting them is enough though. What does you Pokédex supply in the way of information on Pokémon?" Nurse Joy asked.

"Well, everything I need: attacks, abilities, locations, Pokémon, training tips," Ash said.

"Wow, that's the first time I've heard of it having all that in a dex: Professor Oak's really outdone himself this time. But that's good for you and really useful. I'd suggest getting a Pokénav plus, which has a map which shows your location, allows you to make calls, and keep notes and create events, among other things. It would be handy in your situation, even if in a year your memory is back in full working order, and it might take a little longer besides. Another thing would be, is to get your Charmander trained specially to help you when you have memory lapses," Nurse Joy suggested.

"I don't want too many people to know about it, that's all. Can you tell me about the training?" Ash said quietly. He glanced around: he was really embarrassed every time his memory let him down, and he was embarrassed he had to take medicine, and he didn't want people to know. So, he takes his medicine in private, or when no one was around.

"Some people do that anyway: they're terrified of forgetting things, so they get the Pokénav plus or a Pokégear: no one would know, and items like that are getting very popular besides. Well, Charmander would be trained to remind you to check your Pokénav or pokégear. He would be trained to listen to what you say when you speak and tell you if you say one thing then say another thing. Basically, Charmander would be trained to make up for your brain when it fails you," Nurse Joy explained.

"Oh, okay. How long would it take? Where would I need to go?" Ash asked.

"Overall, it takes a month, as a general rule, though. Some Pokémon learn it quicker, and it takes two and a half weeks. If you like, I can start Charmander this evening, then I can send the progress report to all the other Nurse Joys, and each time you stop somewhere for a while, they can do more work," Nurse Joy said, answering Ash's questions as Charmander tried Mega Punch. The attack didn't look much yet, but in the half, an hour Ash and Nurse Joy had been talking, Charmander had made a lot of progress. Ash was really impressed and felt really proud of his Pokémon.

"I'm going to back in an hour, okay? I expect you and your Pokémon to take a break then, alright. No staying out and training until after a meal," Nurse Joy said sternly.

"After we have breakfast, could you spend some time training Charmander like we talked about?" Ash asked hopefully. He wanted to get it started as soon as possible.

"Sure," Nurse Joy nodded, having no objection. Then she went inside to do her work.

Ash then released Pidgeotto, Phanpy and Butterfree, he did some training with them. He got Butterfree to work on confusion, while Pidgeotto and Phanpy had a practice battle against each other. The idea was to increase Phanpy's strength, along with Pidgeotto; he could practice his working-progress steel wing attack.

Ash then walked over to Charmander and Scrafty. Charmander had the idea: he just had to work on more concentration so that the move was more powerful, at the moment. Charmander also needed to work on solely focusing on the attack and the target, as he kept getting distracted by some nearby trainers, Butterfree, Phanpy, Ash and Pidgeotto.

An hour later, Scrafty was satisfied with the progress Charmander was making. Ash was happy to see Charmander was on the right path for mastering Focus punch, as the Pokédex had it as a working progress move. Charmander had done very well already, all things considered.

Phanpy and Pidgeotto both had improved, and Pidgeotto's steel wing was looking promising and certainly getting there. Phanpy had gotten a whole heap stronger, and Ash was going to teach Phanpy bulldoze, or try to, next time they trained.

Butterfree had also made some progress: she had worked out how to access the psychic power, but that was it. "How did it go, Scrafty?" Nurse Joy asked Scrafty as she came out an hour after she left.

"Scraf, scrafty!" Scrafty responded cheerfully.

"That good, huh? Alright, now: hope you planning on coming in, Ash! I happen to know you have not eaten yet, nor have your Pokémon!" Nurse Joy said to Ash, making sure he hadn't forgotten their deal from before.

"Don't worry, Mam, I was planning on that already," Ash nodded. He gestured for all his Pokémon to come. The two humans, Ash's four Pokémon and Scrafty headed inside.

"Have you taken your medicine? And did you get the stuff your mother sent you? Chancy was supposed to pass it on," Nurse Joy asked.

"Yes, yes: Chancy gave the medicine to me last night," Ash nodded, not feeling the need to lie to the nurse.

"Alright. Just drop Charmander with me when you're ready," Nurse Joy said as they reached the lobby.

"Okay, I will," Ash nodded. Then they parted ways, with Nurse Joy going to her post and Ash heading to the Cafeteria. Ash met Misty there.

"Where have you been?" Misty asked yawning.

"We had an early start with training. Nurse Joy offered to lend her Scrafty so it could teach Charmander Focus Punch, and their going to do more after breakfast," Ash said, coming up with a lie for where Charmander would be for the hour or two after breakfast.

"Ah, I see. Are you still going to challenge Brock this evening?" Misty asked.

"Yep. Gives me a chance to train Phanpy and Charmander a bit more. I'm hoping we will start to get some metal over Charmander's claws today," Ash explained.  
"Don't overdo it, or there will be no way you'll win your battle," Misty advised.

"Don't worry, we won't," Ash nodded. He had thought of that. Then he asked, "What are you going to do today?"

"Some fishing," Misty responded.

"Do you know how much Pokénav plus' cost?" Ash asked, thinking Misty was worth a shot.

"I believe their worth about six and a half or seven thousand Pokédollars," Misty said thoughtfully.  
"Right, I might need to ring mum before I buy one," Ash said. He didn't have a lot of money at the moment and he wanted to keep three thousand to be able to afford potions, Pokéballs and stuff, and hopefully, there would be a little more just in case some random bill popped up.

"That's the ones made here, anyway: they have the map with tracking, the notebook and the calendar. The Devon Corporation ones go up to twenty thousand," Misty said, after thinking for a bit.

"What?! That's a big difference!" Ash exclaimed, his eyes bulging.

"Well, the Devon Corps one has many more apps, and they are also much more high tech. Another thing to consider, is the Kanto ones are not as popular so they get sold for less. If they were more well known and popular, their asking price would be around eight or nine thousand, maybe even ten," Misty said, trying to remember all this information.

"Wow, that's a lot to take in. Where would I find them?" Ash asked.

"Most Pokémarts stock a few: otherwise an apartment store, which we're still a few towns from, Saffron is probably the closest, but I am honestly not sure. There might have been one in Viridian," Misty suggested.

When they finished eating, Misty headed off to do her fishing. Ash dropped Charmander with Nurse Joy then headed out to the training field. He was going to pick Charmander up in an hour and a bit, when he would do some work on metal claw, then get Charmander to go up against Phanpy for a practice battle, maybe.

In the meantime, he started teaching Bulldoze to Phanpy. Teaching Phanpy the idea of the attack wasn't very hard, as all he had to do was stomp hard on the ground. However, getting it so it actually did more than a few vibrations directly around Phanpy was the tricky part.

After trying a few different ideas, like simply stamping as hard as possible, or jumping up and down, or trying to focus Phanpy's power, Ash decided to leave Phanpy at it while going and helping one of his other Pokémon.

Ash knew when Phanpy learnt that move, teaching him Earthquake would be easy. Earthquake you had to channel destructive energy, which meant the pokemon had to want to break the ground. To access this energy was difficult, and stomping hard was a great way to do it. And in that case, you were already more than halfway there to unlocking Bulldoze.

Pidgeotto was practising Steel Wing still, and Butterfree was working on Confusion. Psychic and Confusion were useful moves to learn if a pokemon could, Ash reflected. They attacked the target with a wave of psychic power, but advanced versions could be used to stop an opponent in their tracks for a few seconds, which would allow the user to change position.

Of course, if you could use it either attack or move objects, levitate people or even control attacks for a second or two. The psychic was easily one of the most powerful types if you considered all that. However, to do anything more than putting the psychic energy into existence was hard, and powerful Pokémon could not have their attacks controlled, and not be affected by a psychic-types' attempts to keep them from moving.

When it was time to collect Charmander, Ash let his Pokémon work without him, and went to get his starter. Apparently, Charmander had made good progress already. Ash noticed Charmander was listening very carefully to what Ash and Joy said. Charmander always listened to Ash when he was talking to someone, but never this carefully.

"Right, Charmander." They were out on the training fields. "Let's work on Metal Claw. When I'm happy with it, you can work a bit on Focus Punch. I think at the moment the best thing for you is for me to leave be when working on that attack, isn't it?" Ash asked, and Charmander nodded.

Charmander prepared a scratch attack, then concentrated. Ash thought he noticed something change in Charmander's claw, then he attacked. Sadly, not banana so far: it was still a slightly more powerful scratch; slightly more than normal when a pokemon did a strong scratch attack.

Twenty minutes later, they were still working on it. While he gave Charmander a break, he observed the other Pokémon. Phanpy and Butterfree had made a little progress, and Pidgeotto's attack was looking more like the real Steel wing. He got them all to have a break then.

"When your ready, I want Phanpy to work on his speed, and Pidgeotto and Butterfree, I want you two to work on manoeuvrability on the ground. The air is your best and strongest place to battle from, however, this will be handy if you end up in a position where you can't fly," Ash said. The previous day over dinner, he had talked to a few other trainers, and one suggested this.

All three Pokémon didn't look too pleased about this. Phanpy knew that his family line relied on the use of Rollout for their speed, outside of that they were not that fast, but in a rollout attack, that changed. Due to their structure, or so Phanpy thought. He supposed considering he didn't know that move yet, this would be a good idea. That didn't mean Phanpy was going to like it, though.

Butterfree and Pidgeotto had similar reasons for not being pleased. They were designed to fly, and in the sky, they were very fast, whereas, on land, a Caterpie could probably outrun them, well Butterfree at least. However, with moves like smackdown, or simply the fact their wings could get damaged or covered in a substance that did not allow them to fly, speed training on the ground would be handy.

"I know you don't like it, but it is necessary that you do it, I'm afraid; otherwise, I wouldn't ask you of this," Ash said. The three Pokémon nodded, and they got to work.

Ash then went back to Charmander. To his happiness, Charmander was making progress! There was more change in the claw now, and it was starting to get that silver sheen that a steel type move such as metal claw or iron tail should have.

They kept at it a little longer, and that improved, and the coming along not quite yet metal claw got stronger. What was letting it down the most at the moment, was the charge uptime. Charmander was working on that, though.

An hour later, Charmander had shortened the time it took to get the metal coating, but it still took time. Ash thought that was a pass, then asked Charmander what he wanted to do now. Charmander opted to have a rest then. The rest of Ash's Pokémon by this point had collapsed nearby his bag.

"If your guys want, you can do some aerial training. Speed then practising dodging, and moving around quickly and stuff. What do you guys want to do? You can just stay there if you like: you don't need to do any more training," Ash asked Pidgeotto and Butterfree.

Both Pokémon opted to do some aerial training when they were feeling less tired. "Well, don't do it if you're too tired. It's just an option," Ash stated. Then he said to Phanpy, "Unless you want to practice your attacks, you're finished for now."  
"Phanpy!" Phanpy nodded. He then told Ash that he wanted to rest now.

"Alright, Charmander, I think we will not bother with Focus punch this afternoon. After the gym battle, you can work on it more," Ash said, and Charmander nodded. He was worried about getting too tired, but he wanted to please Ash. With Ash saying this, it meant he wouldn't get too tired to battle to the best of his ability.  
"Great!" Ash nodded. With all his Pokémon not working at the moment, he decided to get them some water, and offer an early lunch: well, not that early, there were fifteen minutes to go. Ash had brought some sandwiches when he was in the cafeteria earlier, which meant he wouldn't need to go inside for lunch.

Lunch was a disaster, however. Ash's hand gave way, which meant he dropped the water ball on Phanpy, which followed with him hurriedly drying the ground-type. While Ash planned to do some water resistance training with Phanpy, he didn't want to start that training today.

After that, he accidentally forgot which feed Butterfree liked, and accidentally gave her a really spicy one, when the butterfly Pokémon like sweet Pokémon food. After rectifying that mistake, Ash ended up throwing out the spicy food, as he couldn't put it back in the jar and none of his other Pokémon particularly liked spicy food. He nearly made another mistake, but Charmander noticed this and stopped him.

Surprisingly, Charmander preferred milder tastes, Phanpy liked an earthy taste, and Pidgeotto also liked sweet food. After he had sorted all of that out, Ash sat down with his sandwiches and sighed: What a mess! At least it ended well, he supposed. He was sitting down on one of the seats outside.  
Just as he was packing everything up, when they had finished eating, a voice rang through the training area: "Ash!"  
Ash looked around until he finally saw Leaf running towards him. "Leaf! Hi!" Ash called, waving.

"How long have you been here? How was your journey so far?" Leaf asked.

"A few days. It was all pretty relaxed and sound, actually. The most exciting thing was, Team Rocket attacking the Pokémon centre in Viridian City. When did you get here? And how was your journey?" Ash asked.

"I got here late last night. I had a late morning, then I have been looking around the city a little bit. Have you challenged Brock yet?" Leaf asked, sitting down next to Ash.

"Nope: I am planning on doing that this evening. You?" Ash replied.

"I am going tomorrow or the next day, depending on how everyone goes when I train. It's a pity your battling Brock this evening: I can't come and watch!" Leaf exclaimed, sounding put out.

"What are you up to, may I ask? And don't feel too bad, assuming everything goes well, I am almost certainly going to be gone by the time you challenge Brock," Ash said.

"Meeting some relatives for dinner. It is going to be so boring!" Leaf groaned.

"Oh. How about we battle now? We did say we would next time we met, and we've met up. Is two on two alright? I want to rest Charmander and Phanpy up, that's all," Ash asked. Ash stood up, as did Leaf.

"Sure!" Leaf nodded.

"Alright, Pidgeotto, Butterfree: we're going to the have a battle! Phanpy, Charmander; you guys cheer us on, okay?" Ash said to his Pokémon.

"Oh, isn't it cute! Where did you find Phanpy?" Leaf cried, getting down to examine Phanpy.

"Just near here. I'd expect it wondered over from Johto," Ash said.

"Maybe. All your Pokémon look really strong! You must be training them well! Anyway, let's get this show on the road!" Leaf said, and Ash nodded: he couldn't agree more.

They quickly ran to the ends of the nearby battlefield; the one which Ash had previously been training his Pokémon in and around. The training area at the Pokémon centre had five or six battlefields, and a small playground for Pokémon and children. There were seats all around, and a few trees which would be nice to sit under and keep the sun away from you.

"Alright! Bulbasaur! Come out!" Leaf said, releasing her Bulbasaur.

"Bulba!" the female Bulbasaur cried. From the last time, Ash had seen the Pokémon, it had grown, darkened, and the bulb was beginning to look like it was about to bloom.

"I don't know about your Charmander, but I think my Bulbasaur will have evolved by Cerulean City! I can't wait, to be honest!" Leaf called to Ash.

"Yeah, same, except I am going to have a Charmeleon. Pidgeotto, I choose you!" Ash said to his bird.

"Pidg!" Pidgeotto nodded, flying forward.

"Ladies first, Leaf," Ash called.

"Your regret that move! Use Vine Whip, Bulbasaur!" Leaf commanded with a fiery grace.

"Dodge! Use Gust!" Ash ordered.

"All no! Dodge, Bulbasaur!" Leaf cried, getting panicked.

Bulbasaur turned to her trainer, confused about how she was going to dodge the attack. Bulbasaur stood her ground, but the Gust took quite a bit of her hit points out. "Now! Wing attack!" Ash called.

"Use Poison Powder to defend!" Leaf ordered, thinking cunningly.

"Get out of there!" Ash cried frantically.

"Now! Grab Pidgeotto with Vine Whip then use tackle!" Leaf cried, smirking as she saw an opening.  
"Dodge!" Ash called, but he was too late.

"Pidg!" Pidgeotto cried. Bulbasaur had a strong grip, which meant it was going to take a bit more than wriggling to break free.

"Quick! Use Wing Attack to break the vines!" Ash called.

Pidgeotto nodded, and prepared a wing attack. With a strong jerk, he managed to free one wing to cut one vine, and Bulbasaur let go as she flinched in pain. However, Bulbasaur still managed to hit Pidgeotto with tackle.

That made Pidgeotto really mad. He sat there fuming, waiting for the next command. "Use gust, then Quick attack and Wing attack combined!"  
"Dodge!" Leaf cried. However, there was little chance of Bulbasaur dodging the gust with one vine damaged, and she was not the Pokémon with the best jumping ability. She made an effort, a good effort, and she had almost managed to avoid the attack and only got brushed by it, which meant she didn't have the side effect of being blown away.

But it did its trick: it distracted Bulbasaur long enough that Pidgeotto could get in with the two attacks Ash had asked for.

"Quick! Sleep powder, while it's in close range!" Leaf called.

Bulbasaur quickly summoned the sleeping inducing power, and shot it at Pidgeotto after it had attacked. Pidgeotto avoided the first shot, but then Bulbasaur shot another one above it, so Pidgeotto couldn't both of them, much to his and Ash's dismay.

"Quick! Quick attack!" Ash cried, hoping to get one more attack in before Pidgeotto fell asleep.

As Pidgeotto started to nod off, he charged a quick attack and unleashed it, hitting the target, as neither Leaf or Bulbasaur were expecting it to attack. However, halfway between the starting point and target Pidgeotto fell asleep, which meant he had a crash landing into Bulbasaur.  
"NO!" Leaf cried, seeing Bulbasaur had fainted. "Return, Bulbasaur: you did super."  
"Return, Pidgeotto: you did well too," Ash said, returning his Pokémon also. With one fainted and one sleeping, neither were going to be much use right now.  
"Alright, Butterfree, you ready?" Ash asked his butterfly Pokémon.  
"Bree," Butterfree nodded, and she flew inside the lines of the battlefield. She was happy to get to battle.

"Alright! Spearow! Out you come!" Leaf said, throwing another Pokéball. This time, the brown and white bird known as Spearow appeared. Ash scanned Spearow in with his Pokédex, remembering he was yet to do so.

"Alright! You go first this time, Ash!" Leaf cried.

"Alright! Butterfree! Gust! Let's leave a good impression to start things out!" Ash called.

"Dodge, Spearow! Now, use peck!" Leaf commanded as Spearow started to dodge.

"Spearow!" Spearow cried, doing exactly what Leaf had asked for.

"Dodge, Butterfree!" Ash cried, but too late, Spearow hit with peck.

"Augh! Use Tackle before it gets too far away!" Ash cried.

"Bree, bee," Butterfree cried, using tackle on Spearow.

"Spearow! Use Peck again!" Leaf called.

"Blow it away with Gust!" Ash cried.

"Spea!" Spearow cried in pain.

"Now! Try confusion!" Ash called.

"bree!" Butterfree nodded. She concentrated, and then released the blue power, a full-powered confusion. Ash was surprised: when they had been training earlier, Butterfree was doing well but she was still a little off from mastering the attack. He supposed she might have gotten to the required strength to use the attack properly during the rest, and she lacked that before. Or it was a fluke.

"Spearow!" Leaf cried as confusion hit Spearow.

When Spearow had recovered, Leaf said, "Use Leer then Pursuit!"  
"Dodge!" Ash called. Butterfree dodged the leer, but then she had pursuit thrown full strength at her, as it was a hard attack to dodge.  
"Now peck!" Leaf cried.

"Stop it with confusion! Then use bugbite!" Ash cried.

Butterfree tried to stop Spearow, but it didn't work, so Butterfree got hit anyway. While Spearow was pecking her, she used Bug bite.

When Butterfree let go, both Pokémon was quite beaten up and puffing. Ash and Leaf could tell their Pokémon only had a hit or two left in them.

"Use Peck!" Leaf cried.

"Dodge, Butterfree! Use tackle!" Ash ordered.

"Keep attacking until you hit!" Leaf commanded.

"Same to you, Butterfree!" Ash cried.

For a good two minutes, both trainers watched their Pokémon do an air dance of attacking and dodging than attacking. Finally, both Pokémon hit each other and fell to the side of their trainer.

"There both unable to battle!" Leaf exclaimed, looking at Spearow and then looking to Ash, who was pulling Butterfree's Pokéball out.

"Yep," Ash nodded.

"Well, you win, Ash. Spearow, return: you did a great job for your first battle," Leaf said, returning Spearow. Phanpy and Charmander cheered for Ash.

"You two, Batterfree. You did really well, and mastered confusion!" Ash exclaimed as he returned Butterfree.

"Here, winnings," Leaf said, handing Ash some cash for winning.

"Thanks, Leaf. Let's take them inside to be healed," Ash suggested. Then he said, "You're pokémon were really strong: I thought for most the battle it could go either way."

"Good idea. Thanks, Ash: I realised you were probably going to win halfway during our battle with Butterfree and Spearow," Leaf nodded. They then went and picked their bags up, and Ash returned Phanpy and Charmander. Then they turned and headed inside the Pokémon centre.

Nurse Joy was happy to take and heal their Pokémon, (Ash gave her Phanpy and Charmander as well,) and while she did, Ash and Leaf sat down nearby, talking. "Have you seen Gary or know what he's up to?" Ash asked Leaf, wanting to know.  
"When I rang Professor Oak earlier, he told me Gary was about to drive past Mt Moon when he spoke to him, which was five minutes earlier. Have you rung your mother since you arrived here?" Leaf asked.

"No: I was planning to ring her and the Professor before I left tomorrow," Ash replied.

"Okay, just make sure you do," Leaf nodded. Then she asked, "Are you going to Cerulean after this?"  
"Yes, then I will probably head down to Vermillion City. What about you, Leaf?" Ash asked.

"I am actually thinking of going straight down to Fuchsia City after Cerulean, well, as straight as I can go. Apparently, Koga uses a special slightly weaker team for trainers with under three badges, instead of his monstrous team that he's trying to get onto the Elite Four with. After all, for trainers with at least two badgers it is not compulsory to use a team suited to the challengers level of strength: a gym leader could use an elite-four-strength team against a trainer with three badges," Leaf said.

"Really? Oh. Maybe I should too?" Ash said, thinking.

"It's up to you. You can give it a go, he might use similar Pokémon which are a bit weaker, or in the middle, but he might use his full team, too; they said normally, after all. Who knows? Unlike Blaine, who has is a strong team for seasoned trainers, then weaker Pokemon for the likes of us," Leaf shrugged.

"I might ask the girl I'm travelling with: she's a gym leader, hopefully, she'll be able to help me decide," Ash said, after thinking for a second.

"Really? Which gym's she from?" Leaf asked, looking interested.

"Didn't say, but her name's Misty," Ash shrugged.

"I think the gym leader at Cerulean City is called Misty Waterflower: well, the official Gym Leader on the League site. Her sisters, Daisy, Lily and Violet Waterflower also are gym leaders, when Misty's away, usually; which happens quite a bit, according to an Ace Trainer I got talking with just out of Viridian Forest. From what he said, Daisy, Lily and Violet don't really get on with their other sister, so Misty's often running off in a strop," Leaf said, looking thoughtful.

"Oh. Well, that's a good bet then," Ash nodded. He and Leaf then went on to share training tips until their Pokémon were ready to be picked up, which was when Ash let Charmander out.

"Well, Leaf: I am going to make my way to the gym now. I want to stop at the Pokémart on my way," Ash said, seeing it was getting quite late. Not quite the time he was going to battle Brock at, but it would be that time or close enough, by the time he stopped and walked there. There was a chance that he might have to wait for another challenger to finish their battle first, though.

"Alright. Make sure you don't leave without saying goodbye tomorrow, alright?" Leaf said, looking at Ash firmly.

"Alright, sure," Ash nodded. "Bye!"  
He then turned and walked out the front door of the Pokémon centre, before turning left towards the forest where the Pokémart was: it was on that side of the city.

Ash brought a few more healing items, and a few other handy things. Like a repel and escape rope: it would be handy to have them in case of emergency when crossing mountains. He also brought a few extra Pokéballs. On his way to checkout, while he was thinking about his gym battle, Ash ran clean into someone. Just before, he vaguely heard Charmander cry out.

"Honestly! What's the big idea?! Can't people in this city watch where their goi- Ash?!" Misty exclaimed. Ash realised he had run into Misty: someone help him! He was going to be in big trouble now.

"Hi, Misty," Ash said, looking sheepish.

"What are you doing running into me?!" Misty growled.

"I was just shopping! Maybe you were the one who ran into me?" Ash shot back. He was not going down without a fight, and certainly not taking the blame without one.

"I was just glancing down at my shopping! You ran into me!" Misty exclaimed.

"I was thinking about my gym battle!" Ash defended himself.

"Char! Char!" Charmander said. He was trying to tell them they ran into each other, with no luck of getting through.

"Gerr," Misty and Ash growled at each other for a while. Then it occurred to Ash Charmander had said something.

"What did you say, Charmander?" Ash asked Charmander.

Charmander sighed, then repeated himself. He didn't know why he bothered; Ash should be thankful Charmander did listen to what he said. "Oh, your saying we ran into each other! But!" Ash said, exclaiming.

"Charmander's right, let's call it an accident and pay," Misty sighed. She just wanted to get out of there. She had been almost run into by another person, and run into by a third.

"Alright," Ash nodded, agreeing.

The two trainers went to the checkout and brought their items, then they left the Pokémart and headed up toward the gym. "How did your training go?" Misty asked.

"Everyone made progress, and Butterfree learnt a new move! We also met up and battled a friend!" Ash explained.

"Ah, that's good," Misty nodded.

"How did the fishing go? Did you catch anything?" Ash asked. He recalled Misty had a lot of balls, mostly net and dive balls, in her shopping basket.

"No! I wasted all my balls on A Finneon! And did I catch it? No!" Misty ranted.

"There's always next time," Ash pointed out.

"Yes, but that's not the point!" Misty grumbled.

"All no! I've forgotten my battle plan! I was only thinking about it five minutes ago!" Ash cried.

"Plans tend to go astray anyway, Ash. Just go in, and plan lots of dodging, and attacking with super-effective moves and moves that do moderate damage. Rock types are pretty slow, so most Pokémon can outrun them. You have to watch out for Onix's long body and bind attack, though," Misty said, prep talking Ash.

"He has an Onix, does he? Thanks, Misty!" Ash nodded, taking it all in.

"Yep: the most beastly of all his Pokémon, apparently," Misty nodded. The rest of the walk was quiet.

When they arrived at the gym, they just opened the door and went straight in. "Are you a challenger?" A male voice rang through the room. Ash couldn't see much of the room because it was dark.

"Yes, I am. I'm Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town!" Ash cried.

A light shone at the far end of the hall, and Ash spotted the form of Brock sitting at the far end of the room, against a rolling door (or something similar) with paint slatted on it. Then the rest of the lights came on, and the entire room was lit up. In the middle, there was a battlefield with rocks on it, and everything else was pewter coloured. It looked like above was an area for people to watch the battle, either that or for servicing the gym. Misty made her way over to the stairs to go up there and watch the battle, most likely. She must have assumed the same as Ash, or already knew.

At this point, Brock stood up and knocked on the wall behind him. A minute or two later, a young boy, who Ash thought was one of Brock's younger siblings, burst through another door, which had escaped Ash's notice until now. The boy must be just old enough or about to be old enough to become a trainer.

"I'm here! This will be a two on two battle between the gym leader and the challenger. The battle will be over when both Pokémon on either side is unable to battle! Release your Pokémon!" the boy said, running to the centre of the battlefield. (On the outside of course.)

Ash and Brock moved to the two ends of the battlefield. "I am Brock Grey, the gym leader of Pewter City, and I use rock-type Pokémon. Let's see how you fair up to my Pokémon who are harder than rock, no pun intended. Geodude! Come out!" Brock said, throwing a Pokéball to reveal a boulder-like Pokémon with two arms. Ash pulled his Pokédex out.

_Geodude: the rock Pokémon. Commonly found near mountain trails and the like. If you step on one by accident, it gets angry. It is rock and ground type," _the Pokédex said. Ash made a note to look out for them when they went through Mt Moon.

"Phanpy! Come out!" Ash said, releasing his ground-type elephant.

"Good choice," Brock nodded. "Forrest!"  
"Begin!" The boy, probably called Forrest, cried.

"Geodude, use tackle!" Brock called.

"Dodge with rollout, Phanpy!" Ash cried. He had forgotten to check if Phanpy had learnt the attack, but it was pretty likely all things considered.

"Phanpy!" Phanpy cried, using the attack.

"Follow it with your own rollout, Geodude!" Brock ordered.

"Turn around and hit head on!" Ash cried.

Phanpy did so, and as the two Pokémon made contact, they were both sent away from each other by the force. "Use defence curl, Phanpy! Then mud-shot!" Ash cried. Misty thought the battle had heated up quite quickly.

"Rock Polish and then dodge!" Brock cried calmly.

Both Pokémon did what their trainer asked them to, and Geodude dodged the attack Phanpy sent its way. Brock then asked for Gyro Ball. Ash asked Phanpy to dodge and use Mud-shot. That was a successful hit, however Phanpy's leg got pinged by Geodude's attack.

"Alright! Use Rollout again!" Ash commanded.

"Dodge then use defence curl!" Brock ordered. He still (at least) looked calm.

As the attack was dodged by Geodude, Ash called, "Use growl, Phanpy! Then mud-shot!"  
Phanpy!" Phanpy cried, doing as his trainer requested.

"Dodge, then use Rollout!" Brock ordered.  
Geodude did as his trainer requested, so Ash said, "Counter with your own Rollout!"

They clashed again, however, this time Geodude pushed Phanpy attacked and then hit another three times. "Quick! Use Mud-Shot!" Ash called.

Phanpy managed to hit Goedude with Mud-shot, which stopped the fifth rollout from hitting. "Now! You use Rollout, Phanpy!" Ash cried.

The roles were reversed this time! Phanpy managed to attack all five times with Rollout. "Use Rock Polish!" Brock called to his tired Geodude.

"Stop it with Mud-Shot!" Ash called.

"Phan!" Phanpy cried, using mud-shot.

"Geo!" Geodude cried in pain as the attack hit. Phanpy landed the attack before Rock Polish came through, which Ash was glad about.

"Quick! Use tackle!" both Brock and Ash ordered.

Both Pokémon flew at each other with tackle, and both were sent flying back. The attack exchanges went like that for a little longer, until Ash called for one last mud-shot. Geodude didn't dodge, and it fell back and landed on the ground with a thud.

"Geodude is unable to battle, Phanpy is the winner!" Forester said.

"Yay! We won! Well done, Phanpy!" Ash cried excitedly. Then he felt fear: which was odd, considering there was no reason for it. He supposed it was one of those bad days where he had random bursts of random emotions. Part of the brain trying to finish the repairs after such a long and tiring time of healing, he knew. He did remember there was one more Pokémon before victory in the battle, though.

"No!" a chorused cried from the stands. Ash jumped about a foot in the air, then he looked up to see the kids who looked like Brock's younger siblings watching. He sighed, relaxing: they must have come in during the battle. His memory wasn't that bad, so he would have noticed if they were there earlier.

"Don't get overconfident, Ash!" Misty called.

"I won't. Wanna keep battling, Phanpy?" Ash asked his Pokémon. Phanpy nodded.

"Well done, Ash," Brock said, as Geodude was returned to its ball. "You've defeated Geodude. However, you haven't won the battle yet. Go, Onix!" Brock said, throwing another Pokéball.

What came out was a long snake-like Pokémon made of rock. ´_Onix, the rock snake Pokémon. It burrows at high speed in search of food. The tunnels it leaves are used as homes by Diglett."  
_"Right, sounds powerful," Ash commented as he listened to the Pokédex entry. He glanced at it nervously.

"Onix sure is. You make the first move," Brock said, gesturing to Ash. If Ash didn't know any better, he'd say Brock really looked like he was enjoying the battle.

"Alright! We will be fine, Phanpy!" Ash said, seeing Phanpy looked a little intimidated. Ash was intimidated and as nervous as ever. Phanpy relaxed a little. "Now! Use Mud-shot!" Ash cried.  
"Dodge Onix, and use Rock Throw," Brock said calmly.

Onix easy dodged, then a rock went flying at Phanpy. "Dodge! Phanpy!" Ash cried frantically.

Phanpy did dodge, but quite clumsily. Onix then used Iron Tail. Ash asked for Defence Curl then Rollout. Phanpy did take the hit, however, it meant Phanpy could get a clear shot and Onix's head.

"Use Rock Throw again!" Brock called.

"Dodge and Use Mud-Shot!" Ash called. Phanpy again got brushed by the rock, but he avoided most damage, then he used Mud-shot which hit this time, too.

"Use Harden!" Brock ordered.

"Use Growl!" Ash cried.

"Now! Curse!" Brock said, gritting his teeth.

"Quick! Use Rollout while it's using that move! Then Mud-shot!" Ash cried.  
Onix withstood two rollouts and Mud-shot until curse was over. But then, Brock called, "Bind!"  
"Get out of there!" Ash cried, realising his Pokémon was in serious trouble.

"Phan! Phanpy!" Phanpy cried, trying to dodge to no avail. Phanpy then cried in pain as Onix tightly wrapped it's body around him and used bind.

"Try and get free!" Ash called. Phanpy tried to wiggle free to no avail. "Try using an attack to get out!" Ash called.

This had some effect. When Phanpy used Mud-shot, Onix loosened its grip which meant Phanpy could get free. However, he was very tired.

"Iron tail! Finish it!" Brock cried with a smirk.

"Phanpy! Flail!" Ash ordered.

Phanpy tried to use the attack, however, he was so tired he was slow to move, which meant even with a lowered speed stat, Iron tail still landed before Phanpy could move.

"Phanpy is unable to battle, Onix wins," Forrest cried.

"Yay! Go Brock!" his siblings cried from the stands.

"Great job, Phanpy, you did awesome: I am really proud of you," Ash said, returning Phanpy.

"Charmander, you ready?" Ash said, turning to his fire-lizard.

"Char!" Charmander nodded, with determination in his eyes. He was going to win, no matter what.

"A fire-type? You do know type-wise Charmander is weak against Onix?" Brock said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, I know!" Ash said, irritated. He might be a ten-year-old with memory issues, but he did know how typing worked.

"Onix! Use bind!" Brock said, starting things off quickly.

"Dodge, Charmander! Use Ember!" Ash called.

"Onix, watch out!" Brock exclaimed as Charmander dodged and then released the fiery embers.

Onix gave a small roar in pain. "Now, use Rock Throw!" Brock cried.  
"Dodge and use growl!" Ash called.

"Charmander!" Charmander responded, doing as Ash asked.

"Quick! Use iron tail!" Brock called.

"Dodge and then use Ember!" Ash called. For now, he wanted to keep as far away as possible and do as much damage as possible, before getting close to using Metal Claw to decrease getting caught in a bind attack. That attack was powerful, as he saw with Phanpy. Then he had heard others comment on the powerfulness of the move bind, especially the one which came from Brock's Onix.

"Dodge!" Brock cried. Onix just managed to dodge the ember attack.

"Keep using ember until you hit!" Ash called.

"Use Rock throw until you hit!" Brock ordered.

The two Pokémon attacked mercilessly for a while, and both got hit with each other's attacks. "Now! Use Rock Throw then bind!" Brock called.

"Dodge!" Ash cried. However, Ash widened his eyes as he saw Onix use rock throw as a distraction, so Charmander would be concentrated on that rather than the snaking rock tail: it meant Onix could grab Ash's Charmander with bind.

"Try and get out of there, Charmander!" Ash called, paling.  
"Don't let it escape!" Brock ordered.  
Ash quickly thought. Ember probably wouldn't hit, and he doubted Onix would feel scratch and growl probably wouldn't do anything, either. "Use Metal Claw!" Ash cried.

"Don't let it move!" Brock said calmly.

"CHAR!" Charmander cried in pain as Onix held on tighter. Ash could only watch and horror, and wonder if he should forfeit.

"Try Smokescreen! Then Metal claw if you can!" Ash cried.

"Char!" Charmander said, releasing the black smoke. Ash just stood there, hoping (praying) it would work. Charmander was aiming the attack straight for its eyes, so hopefully, it would distract it so Charmander could move and attack.

When the smokescreen cleared, he saw Charmander had broken free and was on the ground panting. Onix was beginning to look worn, too. "Onix! Charmander is weak! Another attack or two should do it! Huh?" Brock said as Charmander's tail flared up.

Ash was trying to work out what it was. He thought it might have something to do with Charmander's ability, blaze, but he couldn't remember what.  
"_Blaze, an ability that fire-types have. When the Pokémon is getting into a hit or two before fainting, the power of fire moves doubles."_

"Okay! Use Ember rapid-fire, Charmander!" Ash cried.

"Dodge!" Brock cried. However, Charmander was a bit quicker than Onix, which meant the bombard of embers hit first.

"Use Curse!" Brock cried as Onix cried in pain.

"Use Smokescreen then bombard it with Ember again, and then metal claw after running to get onto its head!" Ash cried.

Charmander quickly released Smokescreen as Onix used Curse. Charmander ran up to Onix and used Ember, stunning Onix temporary. Charmander ran up the rock snake onto it' s head, and used ember again, whilst charging up his claws for metal claw.  
As Charmander attacked, Ash couldn't help but feel proud of how far his metal claw had come. It was looking much like a metal claw now, and he was sure soon it would be the real thing. Ash was really happy and proud.

Charmander kept attacking as the smoke cleared, and he managed to stay on even with Onix trying to get him off. As soon as Charmander felt Onix start to fall forward, he jumped off, knowing he had won, Onix had fainted.

When the smoke cleared, Ash and Brock saw Onix lying there, fainted, and Charmander still standing with his tail looking normal, but looking utterly exhausted.

"Onix is unable to battle, Charmander wins! Which means the winner is the challenger!" Forrest cried.

"Yay! Great job, Charmander!" Ash cried, he and Charmander running towards each other. When they met, Charmander jumped into Ash's arms and they had a victory hug.

"Good job, Onix, return," Brock said calmly but a bit disappointed, returning Onix.

The siblings who had been watching, all had disappeared, disappointed Brock had lost, most likely. Misty came down with the battle being over, while Brock walked towards Ash.

"Well done, Ash: great battle," Brock nodded.

"Thanks, Brock! It was a blast!" Ash cried.

"Here's the boulder badge: it's proof of your victory here," Brock said, pulling out a grey badge shaped like a rock.

"Hold on," Ash said, pulling out Phanpy's ball and releasing him. Then he said, taking the badge, "Thanks a lot. Look, guys! We won!"

Ash showed his Pokémon the badge. "Char!" Charmander cried.

"Phanpy!" Phanpy also cried.

"Alright, we got the boulder badge!" Ash said, jumping in the air with the badge above his head. Charmander and Phanpy jumped with Ash, and they struck a pose.

"Great job, Ash," Misty said, smiling as she came over.

"Thanks, Misty," Ash nodded. He went to put the badge in his case, but he dropped it: luckily, he caught it before it hit the ground.  
"It must be nice to travel to around," Brock commented, when they got over Ash almost dropping his badge.

"Yes, it is. Do you want to travel, Brock?" Ash asked Brock. Misty looked interested by that comment, too.

"Yes, actually. You see, I have a dream to be the world's best Pokémon breeder. Before I can do that though, I feel I'd need more experience," Brock explained.

"Ah. You could come with us!" Misty suggested, and Ash nodded.

"I have to stay here with my siblings and the gym. I am not actually supposed to be the gym leader, my father's supposed to be it, so I am not that strong for one. It was never an aim I had," Brock said sadly. They could both hear the venom in his voice when he mentioned his father.  
"That's a shame," Ash nodded, pretending he didn't know as much as he did.

"Go and follow your dreams, Brock," a voice said from behind Ash and Misty. They both jumped then turned around to see Flint coming in. So, he had thought about what Ash had said, after all. Ash couldn't help but feel a bit smug.

"Dad? I don't believe it!" Brock exclaimed, disbelieving.

"The gym and your siblings will be fine with me," Flint said calmly.

"How could you walk out on us like that?!" Brock cried, getting mad.

"I wanted to become a stronger trainer. But I felt so bad, and when I hit the road, I failed miserably. Until Ash talked to me the other night, I hadn't had the courage to come back," Flint tried to explain.

"So, you're a coward, too!" Brock growled.

"Err, we'll leave you to it, shall we?" Ash asked.

"Sorry: you can go if you want," Brock nodded.

"We will stop by before we leave tomorrow, just in case you decide to come!" Ash said. He, Misty, Charmander and Phanpy then quickly left the gym. As they walked back to the Pokémon centre, Ash admired his badge a bit longer before putting it away in his badge case.  
"One down, seven to go," Ash said happily.

"Don't say it like that," Misty said.

"Yeah, probably a good idea," Ash nodded, putting the badge's case away.

Upon returning to the Pokémon centre, he dropped Phanpy and Charmander off with Nurse Joy, while he and Misty went and ate with the other Pokémon. Dinner was a merry affair, and despite the fact there was food, both Butterfree and Pidgeotto stopped eating to examine the badge Ash had won with the other two. They both looked keen to win one themselves.

After dinner and Charmander and Phanpy were healed, so they headed back to their room where Ash gave the two Pokémon some special treats. He had to give the other two some, but not as many as Charmander and Phanpy got.  
Misty stayed around for a little bit and chatted with Ash. "Gee, Charmander looks really close to evolving," Misty commented.

"Yes, he does. At a guess, how long do you think it will be away?" Ash asked the water-type trainer. He tried to remember if Misty had said or not that she wanted to be a water Pokémon Master; random thought he knew, but still. He decided she had, right at the beginning of Viridian Forest, just before or after they entered it.

"A bit of training and a few battles, I'd think," Misty said, looking thoughtful. Then she added, "I can't really be sure, though: as I have never trained a fire-type up."  
Ash nodded, then said, "Thanks, Misty."  
"You could always ask Professor Oak," Misty suggested.

"That's a good idea, actually," Ash nodded.

They stayed up talking for a little longer, then they went to sleep, with Ash putting out his new fire-proof blanket for Charmander to sleep on, much to Charmander's happiness. He didn't like being returned to his ball.

###########  
The next morning, after packing everything up and taking his medicine, Ash went downstairs and met Misty and Leaf in the cafeteria. While they ate, Ash met Leaf's other Pokémon, an Azurill. Azurill and Phanpy got on really well, surprisingly.

After breakfast, they got their Pokémon checked up on while Ash made a couple of phone calls. The call to his mother consisted of showing her the badge, and saying he'd call her at the next Pokémon centre he reached. He forgot to ask about buying the Pokénav, though.

Then Ash rang Professor Oak. Professor Oak said when Ash asked about Charmander's evolution, "He is looking close. If you train and battle even a little bit, I'd say he will evolve within the week."  
"Really? Thanks, Professor! I beat Brock, by the way," Ash said.

"Good job. You know Gary has two badges now, and has captured sixteen different types of Pokémon!" Professor Oak informed Ash.

"That Gary! I don't want to catch every Pokémon I see, as I won't be able to train them all up if I did," Ash explained. "It's good for you professors, though."

"I see. Well, talk to you later!" Professor Oak said. Ash wasn't sure, but he wondered if he offended the Professor, by his first comment.

Five or ten minutes after that, their Pokémon were ready to pick up, so they picked them up. After saying goodbye to Leaf and promising to battle her next time they met, Misty and Ash left the Pokémon centre. As they made their way to the gym, they discussed the road ahead with Charmander riding on Ash's shoulder.

Outside the gym was Brock with a backpack: it seemed he decided to come after all. "You decided to come, then?" Ash said.

"Yes: after talking with my father, he's promised to look after the gym and my siblings so I can travel," Brock nodded. He then added, "I don't think I can spend too much time around him anyway: I'd get tempted to murder him."

"Great! Shall we head out, then?" Misty suggested. The two boys nodded, and they headed toward the edge of the city closest to Mt Moon.

Along the way, they passed the police station with Officer Jenny out the front, whom Brock went gar-gar over. It seemed he had a fondness for Jenny. Misty dragged him away by the ear, fortunately. Ash was too embarrassed, and wouldn't know how to deal with it.

Ash smiled as he, Brock and Misty entered route four: how nice it was to be on the road again! He had a feeling with Brock along for the ride there would be plenty of interesting moments. Not being able to resist, Ash broke into a run, and they all ran forward through the start of the route.

* * *

**I can't think of anything else to say, so I won't say much. Thanks for reading! The next update might not be for a while, I'm not sure. I might add more AN later on, but I am in a hurry.**


	6. To Mt Moon (Mt Moon part 1)

**Chapter 6: To Mt moon (Mt Moon part 1)**

**So here is the latest chapter, And looking at it, it has been four months since last update. Well, it could be worse, like closer to a year. In this chapter, we will meet some new characters! and Someone catches a new pokemon!  
Also, I have decided Ash, Brock and Misty won't go to Cerulean City. There is no real need, now Ash knows Misty's the gym leader, and he can battle her any other time.**

**Ash's team:**

**Charmander, Pidgeotto, Phanpy, Butterfree**

**Brock's:  
Onix, Geodude.**

**Misty's:  
Goldeen, Staryu, Starmie**

**Leaf:  
Bulbasaur, Spearow, Azurill**

**Gary:  
Squirtle**

**Jessie:  
Ekans**

**James:  
Koffing**

**I have added that this will be Pearlshipping to the summary, but I have been thinking about the others. for May, I have had a change of heart, and would do her with Drew or Ritchie. Brock will be with Lucy, and I am planning on putting Misty and Tracy together. And for later on, I will either to Iris and Cilan together, or I'll put Cilan with Skyla.**

* * *

The journey to the foot of Mt Moon was just over a day on foot, and the trip included an overnight stop: too far for one day. Misty said it took her that long to make this part of the journey, and they were making good time, so they could meet that. It was a day of walking, a day of getting to know their newest team member, Brock. During the journey to Mt Moon, they had become very good friends, despite the short period of time they had all known each other for.

As it turned out, Brock knew a lot about Pokémon and was quite a promising trainer. If it wasn't for his lack of experience, Ash was sure Brock would be a very strong gym leader, he had a good brain for training and tactics. Ash was surprised that Brock really wanted to become a breeder, considering the potential for a great gym leader, it was almost a waste, but that was no reason for him to not be able to pursue his goals.

The main problem with Brock, which really annoyed Misty, was his panic to get a girlfriend. Whenever he went gar-gar over a girl, which happened every time they passed someone who was a female adult or close to it, and looked half reasonable, Misty would have to drag him off by the ear. Ash just found the whole thing amusing, but he did feel sorry for the poor girl who just looked confused about what was going on. She just shook her head and fled, or quite a few did.

On the trip down route 4, Ash battled a few trainers and he won quite a few, though there were a lot he didn't win. But Ash didn't mind losing, it would stop him from getting overconfident and arrogant.

The trainers Ash battled included a beauty and a female ace trainer, both whom Brock really liked, which Misty had to drag him away from them, Ash battled a lass too, but she was a bit young for Brock's taste, fortunately.

The beauty (Belle) was relieved when Misty dragged Brock off, and Belle told Ash afterwards she was married. Unlike what happened with the ace trainer where Misty had to be prepared to grab him again, Brock lost interest in Belle as soon as he heard she was married.

Charmander was as close as ever to evolving; he was so close it was agonising. Charmander had learnt Dragon Rage as a result of him levelling up, and focus punch and metal claw were so close to being mastered. Ash was really happy with the results.

Butterfree enjoyed finally being able to battle with true power and had learnt several new moves including poison powder, stun spore and sleep powder. Ash had started getting Butterfree to learn Psybeam, which wouldn't be too hard as it was a similar move to confusion.

Phanpy had nearly mastered bulldoze, which was not surprising considering it was a move the same type as Phanpy. Ash hadn't started teaching Phanpy anything new yet, though. Over that time he had learnt natural gift, and Ash was toying with teaching Phanpy earth power.

Pidgeotto had mastered steel wing over the journey, and in the short time they stopped to rest, Ash started trying to teach him detect. The bird was struggling with the attack and was getting very, very mad as a result. So mad it trounced Misty's poor Staryu spectacularly in a battle. Pidgeotto had also learnt twister as a levelling up move.

They did general training to improve stats on top of that, and Brock and Misty had trained with them, which included practice battles. Ash noted Goldeen was starting to look like she was close to evolution, which excited Misty. Ash had beaten Misty in a battle, but currently, she was too young by five months to give out badges without her sisters overseeing.

"How long will it take us to cross Mt Moon, guys?" Ash asked. He wasn't sure about Brock, but he knew Misty had been through here at least once.

"It took me a day, starting quite early," Misty said.

"That would seem about right if the map is correct. Unless you wanted to see the Moon Stone, that would make our journey take longer. It would be at least a week by the time we actually found it," Brock said, reading the map. They had been on the road for a day, including a stop overnight. They were expecting to arrive at the foot of the mountain in a couple of hours.

"It would be nice if we could. We would be more likely to find rare Pokémon then, too!" Ash said, getting excited.

"That is true the rarer ones to tend to stay away from the main path in the mountains. That can also be to do with mining," Brock nodded.

"Mining?" Ash asked, looking confused.

"Char?" Charmander said perking up. From an older Charizard at Oak's lab, he had heard of Mega Stones, which were usually found in caves, or so the Charizard believed. Maybe that's what they mined? Whatever mining meant: Charmander certainly had no idea.

"Yes: Mt Moon is well known for being a fossil hot-spot, not to mention several other rare stones of been found there," Misty supplied.

"Wow," Ash nodded.

"Char! Char!" Charmander cried.

"It would be great to find something like that, don't you think, Charmander?" Ash asked his partner, and Charmander nodded.

An hour and a half later, they came to the Pokémon centre at the end of route 4. It was just a Pokémon Centre in the middle of nowhere, which basically looked like it had been dumped there. There was not even a training ground, instead, everyone was training out the front and all around it.

"Wow: you would have thought they would have built a bit more considering a lot of people come through here," Ash commented.

"Not really: it is only a place for people to heal their Pokémon and rest before Mt Moon. Pewter City is not that far away after all, and Cerulean is just on the other side," Misty pointed out.

"I suppose," Ash nodded as they walked closer. Then he asked, "Are we just going to heal our Pokémon here then head off?"

"No. Considering it's getting late, let's stop for the night," Brock suggested. It was getting quite late in the day, the sun was starting to set.

"Are you sure you're not saying that just to get more time with Nurse Joy?" Misty asked, rolling her eyes. Brock (smartly) ignored her.

They walked up to the centre door and went in. There were a few people here and there, but it could almost pass off as being abandoned. A very cheery and positive Nurse Joy came out then.

"Hello, and welcome to the Pokémon Centre! What can I do for you today?" Nurse Joy said, bowing to them. Brock suddenly charged over to her and grabbed her hand.

"Hello, Nurse Joy! I have this increased throbbing in my heart, and only you can fix it!" Brock declared. As he went to say something else, Misty had reached him and grabbed his ear.

"Save it for someone who cares, Brock: besides, there was nothing wrong with your heart five minutes ago," She said, dragging him off. Nurse Joy just looked confused and bamboozled about the whole thing.

Ash just chuckled, then said, "Don't mind him. We would like our Pokémon healed and two rooms please." He was assuming that Brock wouldn't mind sharing with him. Ash then showed Nurse Joy his trainer identification.

"Of course, Ash. Just put your pokémon on this tray," Nurse Joy nodded, collecting three pokéball trays. Ash returned Charmander and started placing his Pokémon on one as the others came over.

After they had given her their Pokémon, a Chancy came up and took them off. "Here: room three and four, if that's okay," Nurse Joy said, handing them two keys.

"That would be good. Thanks, Nurse Joy!" the three trainers nodded, Ash and Misty taking the keys. They then decided to head upstairs.

After putting their bags down, they decided to go and eat something in the cafeteria. When they finished, it was five in the afternoon. Ash decided, considering his Pokémon were not back yet, it was a bit late to do any training that day. He rang his mum and Professor Oak instead, with there being some time to kill before dinner.

"Hi mum!" Ash said as he got onto Delia Ketchum.

"Hi, honey! Who are they behind you?" she asked, referring to Misty and Brock.

"Ah, these are Misty Waterflower and Brock Boldson. You two, this is my mum," Ash said.

"Nice to meet you," Misty nodded.

"Nice to meet you, Mrs Ketchum," Brock said politely.

"Nice to meet you both! But please, call me Delia. Is Ash behaving?" Delia asked, much to Ash's dismay.

"Yes, he is," the older trainers nodded.

"Good," Ash's mother nodded happily.

They chatted for a little longer until it was time to hang up. "Now, Ash, don't forget to—" Delia went to say before Ash said rather loudly.

"Mum! Don't! I know!" he cried, knowing what she was going to say.

"Don't forget to change your underwear every day!" she said, giving Ash a knowing look. Brock and Misty found this very funny and were trying not to laugh.

"Bye!" Ash said, sighing. He was grateful she didn't spill the beans about him having to take medication.

Then a thought crossed his mind, "_Is that any better?"_

He then rang Professor Oak, which confirmed that Professor Elm thought that bird Ash had seen was indeed Ho-oh. Misty and Brock were in awe of that fact. After chatting a little longer to the professor they hung up, collected their Pokémon then went and had dinner.

##################

Before heading off the next morning, Ash decided to get some training done with his Pokémon, as he fancied the idea they wouldn't be getting much done over the next part of the journey. He did speed training with Phanpy, and worked on the moves he was learning with his levelling up. Ash worked on defence and new moves with Butterfree. Charmander was working on the in-progress moves and strength, and Pidgeotto was working on being able to battle on the ground, and the moves he was still learning.

When Ash finished, he left his Pokémon with Nurse Joy to meet up with Misty and Brock in the cafeteria. They had arrived by the time Ash had. Just as Ash reached the table, his legs gave way and he fell to the ground.

"Are you alright?" Brock asked as he and Misty jumped up.

"Yes, I'm fine. Just cool it," Ash said putting his hands up to stop the others from coming closer. Then slowly, he stood up.

"What happened?" Misty asked as they all sat down.

"My legs gave way. Have you two ordered yet?" Ash asked, changing the subject quickly.

"No," they both shook their heads.

"What do you want, then? I'll go and get it," Ash offered.

"Okay, well," Misty said, rattling off what she wanted. Ash remembered Brock and Misty's orders after Brock had said his, then Ash went up and ordered.

When he got there, he remembered Brock's and half of his own, (his drink,) but he couldn't remember what he wanted to eat or what Misty wanted, so he had to go back to check the menu and ask her. He did get it right in the end though.

After eating, Ash collected his Pokémon then went to get his backpack from their room. After checking their rooms for anything they might have missed, they headed downstairs and handed the keys over to Nurse Joy as they left.

"Be careful crossing Mt Moon: something's disturbing all the wild Pokémon up there, apparently. The Pokémon League are yet arrive and sort it out, but they're coming, I hope," Nurse Joy warned.

"Really? We'll be careful," Ash nodded. To keep on his mother's good side, he would need to stay safe.

"Yes," the other two agreed. After leaving the Pokémon centre, they made their way up a short steep climb to the entrance of the cave part of Mt Moon. Ash, about then, released Charmander and Butterfree. The three chatted and they decided, considering the nurses' warning, they wouldn't try and see the moon stone this time through the caves.

"What do you think about what Nurse Joy said?" Ash asked.

"It's worrying if it's true," Misty nodded. All three of them were concerned.

"Look! Those Zubat are all mad!" Brock said, pointing to a flock of Zubats up ahead just in the entrance of the cave. They were flapping around madly, and as they got closer, they could see the zubats were very, very mad.

"What do we do?" Misty asked, watching them flap about.

"There's no way we could get past them unhurt," Brock said, thinking.

"Butterfree, do you think you could blow them away with gust?" Ash asked Butterfree.

"Bre," Butterfree nodded.

"Great idea, Ash! It will be harmless to them and move the flock on!" Brock said as if he had a light-bulb moment.

"Butterfree, gust!" Ash called.

"Bre!" Buterfree said, taking to the air (she had been on Ash's should until that point,) and used gust.

Like Ash and Brock had thought, it blew the zubats further into the cave, where they would hopefully not have to cross them again. One somehow got missed, and flew above them, chirping happily. Unlike its friends, it seemed to be happy.

"Err, what the?" Misty asked, looking at the zubat confusedly.

"Compared to the others, this one seems quite calm and happy," Ash remarked.

"Yes, it does. What's up, Zubat?" Brock asked it.

"Zu, zubat!" Zubat cried, landing on Brock's arm.

"It seems to really like you, Brock," Ash remarked.

"Maybe you should catch it?" Misty suggested.

"What do you say, Zubat?" Brock asked it.

"Zu!" Zubat cried, nodding. That was what it wanted.

"Alright, hold on," Brock said, pulling out an empty Pokéball.

"Zu!" Zubat cried, flying into it.

After the Pokéball engulfed Zubat, it rocked twice in Brock's hand before the light went out. "I caught a Zubat!" Brock said, holding his arm with the Pokémon right up into the air.

"Great job! Though it must be the world's easiest capture," Misty commented while Ash pulled his Pokédex out. Despite it all, she thought it was odd the bat had seemed very happy and had been quite friendly compared to his comrades.

_Zubat, the bat Pokémon, and a female on level seven. It Emits Ultrasonic cried while it flies: they act as a sonar used to check for objects in its way."_

"Thanks for that information, Ash. Can you find out what she knows?" Brock asked, releasing Zubat again.

"Bat!" Zubat cried cheerfully, looking happy on Brock's shoulder.

"Absorb, Supersonic and Astonish," Ash responded.

"Reasonable enough, but still plenty of room for improvement," Brock nodded at Zubat, who just responded with a cheerful cry.

"Shall we continue?" Misty asked impatiently. The two boys nodded, and they continued on into the caves.

"I wonder why your zubat wasn't as mad as the others?" Ash wondered.

"Maybe it hadn't gone near, or been affected yet by whatever made the others upset," Brock suggested.

"Hmm," was all Misty said.

The walk was quiet, too quiet for the most part. They didn't run into any trainers, and the Pokémon they did meet were charging around as if they were panicked, or something was upsetting them.

"Something is definitely wrong here," Ash commented. The others were silent but nodded.

It was then they came across a group of three trainers. A male ace trainer, a girl with red hair, and a boy with Pikachu on his shoulder. When they saw Ash, Misty and Brock, they flagged Ash and co down.

"Hello," Ash greeted.

"Do you guys know what is happening?" Brock asked, thinking it was worth a shot.

"None in the foggiest. What about you guys? Do you have any ideas? I'm Ritchie Hikarah and this is Sparky," Ritchie said. The pikachu on his shoulder gave a small cry to say hello.

"Something further on is upsetting all the wild pokémon who are coming down here to try and get away: if not up there, why else wouldn't we be able to work it out by now? Besides, the pokemon normally like to hang around further along. Another worrying thing is, where are the trainers? Normally a lot of hikers, bug-catchers and other trainers like that hang around in here. I'm Ryan Greathorn," the ace trainer said.

"I'm Skyla White," the only girl of the group said.

"I'm Brock Bolderson," Brock greeted.

"My name is Ash Ketchum! This is my starter Charmander," Ash said cheerfully.

"My name's Misty Waterflower. Are you travelling together?" Misty asked.

"No: after hearing the rumours of the pokémon acting up and seeing them, we decided to find someone to cross the mountain with which is how we met," Ryan explained.

"Considering none of us knows what's going on, how about we band together for a while?" Brock suggested, and everyone else thought it was a good idea, so they started travelling onward in a large group of six plus three pokémon. Of course, they started chatting then too.

Ryan was quite the prodigy and had a lot of badges already, and he was heading over to see the researcher Bill to do some work for him. Ryan seemed to be quite interested in learning about Ash, Misty and Brock: Brock thought Ryan was the type to observe others and try and work out what their future would be like. He had come from a small town called Maiden's Peak.

Ritchie was on a similar quest to Ash and he was from the Saffron City area, but after getting thrashed by all the gyms except for Celadon, Ritchie decided to take a plane to Viridian City and go on to Pewter City from there. He currently had two badges, and Brock thought the boy was a more laid-back version of Ash.

Skyla was from a city in Unova; she was from a family of pilots, and she desired to become one herself. She had two badges, and had challenged Lt Surge, but had been beaten spectacularly, so she decided to come back this way for some training. Despite it all, she was quite arrogant.

###########################

A little further on, Brock's Zubat started to get upset, along with Charmander and Sparky. Ash thought he could feel vibrations through the ground, too, as did the others when he remarked upon it. "Zubat, Charmander, they're both upset," Ash said, looking worried. Butterfree seemed to be okay for the moment.

"Let's return them," Brock suggested. After Ash nodded, they returned Charmander and Zubat to their balls. Ritchie tried to return Sparky to his ball, but he wouldn't go in.

"Sparky, please! What do I do?" Ritchie asked the others in dismay.

"Put Sparky in your bag, because that should soften it a little. I'd suggest earplugs except I'm guessing no one has any," Ryan said thoughtfully, and everyone shook their heads. Ritchie nodded and did as Ryan suggested.

"We still don't know what's causing it," Misty commented as they moved on.

"Considering the vibrations are getting stronger, I'd say we'll soon find out," Brock said.

"Why hasn't butterfree being affected though?" Ash asked.

"Bree?"

"Bug types are different: it is said they can big up different sound waves to other pokémon, but not be able to pick up some which any other type can pick up. Steel has also shown up similar results, and that can depend on the cave and area too, considering the Paris and those Aron we saw are all looking fairly relaxed, maybe Mt Moon has minerals in its walls that are protecting those types in this instance," Ryan said thoughtfully.

As they rounded the next corner, they spotted two people dressed in black, with white boots, and a red R on the front of their shirts. Ryan was the first to see them, and only Ash was in front. Ryan whispered to the others, then grabbed Ash and they all hid behind a rock, though Ash was dragged there. "They're probably from Team Rocket!" Misty hissed.

"Who else dresses like that?" Skyla put in.

"They are! What do we do?" Ash asked.

"In case there are more, let's ambush them," Brock suggested. He was not sure about this: it didn't seem safe, but they couldn't just leave Team Rocket there, and this would be the safest way of dealing with them.

"Can't we just straight out battle them? All of us against them, they wouldn't stand a chance," Skyla said, whining.

"Too risky, Skyla. They will have plenty of time to notify their friends, and who knows how many of them are elsewhere. Brock's idea is the best," Ryan said, yet again agreeing with the tall gym leader.

"So, what do we do?" Ritchie asked.

"Ash, does your butterfree know any psychic moves?" Ryan asked, and Ash nodded. "Okay, you and I will get our pokémon stun the grunts. Kadabra, come out! Misty, Brock, Ritchie, Skyla, can you serve as a distraction?"

"Sure," Misty nodded.

Misty, Skyla, Ritchie and Brock slowly moved around, trying to keep hidden. When they had found more cover behind different rocks, then they made sounds to attract the two rocket grunts. They were careful to just make suspicious sounds to not be obvious they were humans. The two grunts slowly kept up.

"Quick! Confusion then stun spore!" Ash told Butterfree as the grunts closed in on Brock and co's location. Ryan asked for confusion from his Kadabra at the same time.

"Bree!" Butterfree said, flying up and sending that attack at them and Kadbra released the attack also. Then Brock and Misty stood up and pushed them both back to the ground. Ritchie and Skyla rushed forward to tie them up with climbing rope they had.

With both grunts stunned they were easy to tie up, but then they were all confused on what to do next. After five minutes of standing around, muttering and wandering about like headless chooks, trying to work out what to do. Misty, in the end, came up with the answer.

"Let's continue, but slowly and carefully," she suggested, and the others nodded.

As they continued on they met at least eight other grunts, which they had to battle before they could be tied up. Being mostly poison types, Butterfree and Kadabra made short work of the grunts with confusion, along with Starmie's psychic, and Brock's Geodude against a zubat and a golbat. Sparky and Skyla's Tranquil had a bit of a harder time. With the exception of a pair of golbat, all Pokémon fainted in under seven moves.

The vibrations could now be identified as sounds from a powerful machine, probably a drill, Brock was guessing, and Ryan agreed, though they had been suspecting something like that all along. Brock had been on a dig once, several years ago, and the drills they had used there were similar to this.

"There is something going on in the next room," Brock stated as they walked down a tunnel. They could feel the vibrations still, though they were not upsetting the pokémon, and they could hear people talking.

"What should we do? Should we find back-up?" Ash asked.

"Shh! I can hear some talking!" Misty hissed.

"And it's close too," Ritchie remarked.

"Honestly, how much longer do we have to stand here for?!" an annoyed female voice said.

"Until they're finished digging fossils up, but only a few more days. Our job is to grab any trainers that walk through this door and steal their Pokémon!" Another female said brightly.

"What did they want the fossils for, again? To get rare and cool Pokémon?" grunt A asked.

"Yes, and to sell for high prices. Not to mention there is always the chance of digging up a Mega Stone," grunt B said.

"I'd love to get my hands on one of those!" grunt A said longingly.

"I know. Even if some did get dug up, we'd have to go up about a million ranks for that to happen!" grunt B moaned.

"Well, there's more of a chance for us then Jessie, Meowth and James," grunt A pointed out.

"True!" the other responded.

"They're waiting to ambush us! What do we do?!" Misty asked.

"Let's get Onix to use dig, and make them sink into the ground," Brock suggested.

"Kadabra can use teleport, too, and surprise attack," Ryan suggested.

"Okay, but we need to rescue the trainers! Let's make a plan!" Skyla said.

"This is very risky, though! Maybe we should run back and get help at the Pokémon centre. We don't even know if they have trainers yet," Misty suggested.

"We can't leave them, though! For all we know, in the time it takes us to get help, they could have moved on, with those poor trainers' stolen Pokémon! And what might they do to the trainers?!" Ash said, losing all other trains of thought and going into hero made.

"That is true. The is a chance they could even kill them," Ryan nodded.

"And there is a narrow chance none wouldn't have come by," Brock added.

"This is scary," Skyla said, showing she was not quite so brave as she had first acted.

"We'll all look after each other," Ritchie said cheerfully.

The others nodded, seeing Ash and Ryan had a point, and Brock had some ideas to add. They waited a few seconds, and then retraced their steps to where they would defiantly not be overheard, then started planning a rescue.

* * *

**So, yeah, Ash meets Ritchie earlier in this, and Skyla was just to add a little more... I don't know, something when Ash goes to Unova and meets her as a gym leader not really doing her job. And then Ryan, well knowing another older trainer might be handy later on. Next chap more on Team Rocket, and helping bring them down.**

**PS: I do not own pokemon, and some things in this story maybe ideas burrowed or based off things from other stories.**


	7. To Mt Moon part 2

**Chapter 7: Mt Moon part 2**

**Alright, I am a little sorry this hasn't been updated since October, but I do have a system with updates, and I'm sure you noticed I have a lot of stories in progress. I would like more reviews on my pokemon stories though. But I'm excited my HP/SW xover has over a hundred favs and follows!**

**Also, I will change my poll on profile page back to the one for my other pokemon story for a week, so if your reading both and you are yet to vote, better pop over!**

**Pokemon list as of the beginning of this chapter:**

**Ash: Phanpy, Charmander, Pidgeotto and Butterfree**

**Brock: Onix, Geodude, Zubat**

**Misty: Starmie, Goldeen, Staryu**

**Jessie: Ekans**

**James: Koffing**

**Ritchie: Pikachu (Sparky),**

**Skyla: Tranquil**

**Ryan: Kadabra  
Because the list would get too long, if a character has not appeared for two chapters, they're getting taken off the list, even if they appear in that next chapter, they'll be added back onto it then. Until Vermillion City at the earliest, I don't have Leaf or Gary appearing. Anyway, enjoy, this chapter isn't a too bad length.**

* * *

In all honesty, whatever they planned to do for freeing the trainers seemed like a bad idea. No matter what they planned and what they came up with, they found heaps of room for it to go horribly wrong. The one they were going with had an extremely high chance of something happening.

But, when they came up with other plans, they found not much room for error and lots of problems, so they kept returning to this one. Nothing seemed to be good or safe: running back to Pewter City and coming back with strong trainers would be the best and safest, but they were worried about Team Rocket disappearing if they did that.

It was a simple enough plan: they would send out some of their pokémon, (one each,) the ones they thought could get around without been detected or had the best chance of doing so. Their team of pokémon will go around and attack and knock out as many grunts as possible while not attracting attention.

Meanwhile, Richie and Skyla would attack the grunts who were guarding the trainers they had captured, then release the trainers and go find their pokémon. The pokémon taking out grunts would help them with that and make their job easier by knocking out some of the guards before they got there.

In the meantime, Misty, Brock, Ryan, and Ash would use their Pokémon to make a direct assault. First, though, they were going to find someone to get the police or someone stronger than them: there was no way they could bring down Team Rocket on their own, despite what Skyla believed, though admittedly she had gone off that idea. They could (hopefully) save the trainers and their pokémon, but they thought they could only keep Team Rocket busy until the police and whoever else arrived.

They hadn't needed to go too far until they found a person, a cyclist to be exact. He was heading towards Pewter City, and while he was in a hurry, he did stop for them. He was a little nervous due to the lack of trainers and life, and then the vibrations: they had all put him off and he was very scared. He had gone down some longer and less direct routes, meaning he did not see Team Rocket, but he believed them when they said they were here. The cyclist was happy to help, and he charged off on his bike to get to the city. In the meantime, they would make a start in trying to bust Team Rocket.

"I wonder why no one has come to get rid of them?" Misty asked irritably as they walked. Richie, meanwhile, thought they were like soldier's walking into a battle, which was kind of cool, but kind of scary. He hoped they didn't die like most soldiers did: now that was a morbid thought.

"Who knows? These days the Pokémon League has gotten a bit slack, but then it is hard because Lance is champion of Two regions, and the elite four is either older, not that interesting in this sort of thing, or just gotten admitted and struggling to get used to their job. With any luck, this incident will kick them into action," Brock said thoughtfully.

"Hopefully. It is an embarrassment to the region otherwise," Ash nodded. "I like Lance, but he was asking for it and an idiot for agreeing to take on two regions."

"Cha!" Charmander nodded, agreeing.

"Don't worry. If they don't start being more efficient, Brock and I can make a fuss about it and get the Pokémon league to take action or shut down and re-start: I'm sure other Gym Leaders would feel the same because of one reason or another, and four gym-leaders is enough for a Pokémon League investigation. It will mean we don't have the strongest in power, at least for a little while but hopefully, a new champion and elite four would do something about this! I can recall complaining to the Pokémon League last time I went through Pewter City! Can't remember what it was about though," Misty said, getting onto a bit of a rant. "Lance will still be Johto Champion, as no one has a problem with him there and that is his native region and where he was champion first."

When they were almost in Team Rock zone, they went and found other ways into the area, such as tunnels dug by other pokémon. Though they were all small, too small for the humans, it was okay, though, as it was for their pokémon to take. If there was any sign of team rocket, they got rid of it, even if it was just a poster. Then Ash released Butterfree and Pidgeotto, while Brock released Zubat, Ritchie released his Butterfree, Ryan released Kadabra, Skyla released woobat, and Misty sent out Staryu.

Misty didn't have any good Pokémon for the job, but hopefully, a pokémon who knows some useful moves for this task would be good enough: she did have a few of those. Staryu looked up for it, so hopefully, he'd succeed. Staryu was a very keen pokémon and adored Misty so it would give her everything it had.

After explaining to the pokémon their plan and what they needed to do, they went off and split up into their groups. Ash, Misty, Ryan, and Brock went to their entry point and were ready for battle. While it was tempting to separate here and go forward in pairs, they decided to attack them as a team. Safer and hopefully easier that way.

"Hey! Get them!" a grunt cried, spotting them. Three others came over, and Ash and co found themselves surrounded. The grunts released a pair of Ratatta, a Zubat and koffing respectively.

"Charmander go!" Ash cried to his partner. Charmander nodded and jumped into action. Ash had released Charmander to walk with them for extra support, and now he could go into attack mode much easier. Misty had sent Starmie out, Brock sent Onix out and Ryan released a Wartortle; then the battle started.

These grunts had one Pokémon each and were not very strong to start with. However, they got word around about the intruders before they could defeat them, and Ash and friends were soon be surrounded by other grunts. They had about eight attacking them at once at one point!

They were still only at the edge of the Rocket infested trap/area, though. Right now, they ducked behind some rocks to watch a familiar trio: Jessie, James and Meowth, working like many other people they'd passed. A green-haired man and a girl with long blonde hair done in pigtails were watching them, standing over them, laughing at them. They seemed to be taking great pleasure in the fact, Jessie, James and Meowth were working hard while they weren't.

"Isn't this the best? I mean, we always had a higher rank than those three," the woman said, shooting a look at the rocket trio. "But having them work for us is something else, right, Putch?"

"it's Butch!" The green-haired man growled, glaring at her. Then he said, regaining composer, "Sure is. It is an honour to be second in command for this important operation! If it keeps going smoothly like it has been going, it will raise our profile, Cassidy. We may even get a promotion!"

"Exactly! Next stop, is us on the board of executives! Then we can order the entire association around!" The woman, apparently called Cassidy, cried excitedly, stars appearing in her eyes. Butch and Cassidy looked like they were slightly older than Jessie and James, which Ryan thought was interesting.

Charmander, while they listened, was thinking about how curious about Team Rocket was. There were two people out of all the members of the gang he'd seen dressed in white: all the others were dressed and only wore black some of them, albeit quite a few were dressed with white gloves and boots. What was the meaning behind that? Was there some reason? Or was it just one of those things? Charmander would like to know, though it wasn't vital. Like pokémon, like trainer, Ash was having the same thought.

"As much as I don't like those three, it seems they have history with those two," Misty said, referring to Butch and Cassidy and their Rocket Trio.

"Yes. You must feel a little pity for them considering they are been treated like slaves," Ash said, and Ryan nodded.

"Agreed. They are watching them like hawks: I'd imagine they can't do a thing wrong," Brock nodded, sadness entering his voice.

The group pushed on then, wanting to avoid detection of Cassidy and Butch. If they were second in command for this mission, they must be fairly strong, or Team Rocket's crazy. Misty, Ash, Brock and Ryan didn't want to battle anyone that high profile, at least not at this point.

"Why do you suppose Jessie and James wear white while all the others wear black?" Ash asked, not being able to help himself. Charmander perked up, as did Starmie. Starmie was curious, and it had theories, but it knew the humans would know the truth, or have a better idea than it ever could.

Brock had returned Onix as soon as they finished battling, which was five or so minutes earlier, as it would attract a lot of attention having such a big pokémon out. It was a big risk leaving the other two out, but they all felt safer this way, so it was a risk, but a worthwhile one.

"Maybe they are disgraced so they have to wear them?" Misty suggested.

"it's possible that currently they hold some kind of special position or are special. Though, that isn't likely considering how they are treated," Brock said, thinking. He was always the wise one.

"It is possible there is something we aren't seeing," Ryan said as they were attacked by three more grunts. Ash was battling a Raticate: they were starting to get to the tougher guys now. Brock and Misty cursed as their pokémon started to get pushed to the limit this early on.

"Charmander! Use ember!" Ash cried.

"Char!" Charmander cried, releasing ember attack.

"Dodge!" the grunt cried, a little too late. Despite how powerful his Raticate looked, a strong trainer this grunt was not, or at least, not a good or smart trainer. All his commands were sloppy and or late, but he was still putting up a good fight for an already tired Charmander. He was slightly over-weight and had purple hair, and was the second most unpleasant-looking person Ash ever saw.

"Metal Claw!" Ash called.

"Dodge!" the rocket cried.

"Combine Ember and Metal Claw!" Ash cried.

"Dodge, dodge, dodged!" the grunt cried desperately.

Charmander did his best to hit, but he was struggling a little. He did hit a few times, which did a bit of damage. It would be good to use Focus Punch, but Ash didn't want to risk Charmander getting injured in the charging time. Ash decided to try a different move.

"Dragon Rage! Rapid-fire!" Ash said, hoping he was not pushing his partner too much.

Charmander happily agreed though, which reassured Ash somewhat. As long as he had energy and wanted to keep fighting, Ash would let him. Raticate avoided more than half the attacks, and he got hit by the rest, except one which it had destroyed with a super fang. However, that had tired Charmander out, and he fell onto one of his knees.

"Too weak to keep fighting? Pathetic: Kanto is the poorest excuse for a major league region," The grunt taunted, and both trainer and pokémon shot him a deathly glare. Pity looks can't kill.

"Charmander, are you alright?" Ash asked, worriedly. Charmander was still up per say, but Ash could tell he should be down, as that was a cause of going down on one knee like that.

"You could at least order it to stand up and fight, kid. No wonder it's so weak, with a soft-hearted, fluffy, pathetic trainer like you," the grunt continued to taunt.

Charmander's tail flared up, signifying Blaze had kicked in. Ash would never rely on it, for two reasons. One, it was cruel to get a Pokémon so weak to activate it on a regular basis, and with Charmander at least, it was touch and go wherever or not it activated. Charmander always kept going until he fainted in tough battles like this, but the ability hardly ever kicked in. Ash might ask Professor Oak about it when they reach the next stop with a phone.

There was a possibility it was a defect in his Charmander, and the ability is supposed to kick in every time his HP was low. It didn't matter though, that line of thought was abandoned as a glow surrounded Charmander, which was the cause of the tail flare, most likely. Ash realised what it was after staring at him for a while.

"Evolution! He's evolving!" Everyone including the Team Rocket Grunts cried.

Charmander grew in size, and a pointy thing appeared on the back of his head. Ash was grinning as he saw his Charmander's features had sharpened and his skinned had gotten a much richer red. Ash knew Charmander was now Charmeleon.

"Yay! Well done, Charmeleon!" Ash cried, pulling his pokédex out.

´_Charmeleon, flame Pokémon. Though fights could excite this Pokémon when excited it may breathe out bluish-white flames.'_

"Alright! Ready to fight?" Ash asked grinning. Meanwhile, the purple-haired grunt looked at them both, swallowing nervously.

"Char!" Charmeleon roared, his tail flaring up. Ash realised blaze had kicked in now, but he made a note to heal him after.

"Alright! Ember!" Ash cried.

"Cha!" Charmeleon cried, releasing embers more powerful than before: it almost looked like flame burst or flamethrower.

"Dodge!" the grunt cried.

The attacks had sped up too: the Raticate had no chance. After that, Charmeleon used Focus Punch and defeated the opponent. "No!" the grunt cried as his Raticate fainted.

##############

Ash cheered as the grunts ran off, and went and congratulated Charmeleon, who was very proud of his new form. He, Brock and Ryan gave the fire-lizard a quick check over, and while they were not doctors or nurses, between them they had a bit of experience and had seen pokémon evolve and knew what to look for when making sure nothing bad came out of it. They all had also read books on what to look for, too: he looked fine.

After that, Ash, Ryan, Misty and Brock continued, not before Ash returned Charmeleon after using a super potion on the injuries. They kept going and battled more grunts and more grunts. Ash was using Phanpy now, giving Charmeleon a rest. He would quite possibly need to use him later. Phanpy, meanwhile, was doing fine and having the time of his life.

After what felt like forever, they came around and were in the doorway to another room. Here, grunts were cleaning fossils and other things they had dug up. Brock had to admit, for bad guys with a terrible track record, they were taking very good care of the fossils and ordinary rocks. Surprisingly, there were only ten grunts actually on guard: maybe their Pokémon, Skyla and Richie had gotten the others? There were a few tents, so maybe they had the pokémon or trainers in this area? A possibility, anyway.

Ryan also noticed that and suspected the same as Brock. He suspected they wanted the fossils to return to their pokémon forms, and maybe they were looking for evolution stones? He didn't know. It occurred to Ryan there might be Mega Stones here in Kanto: he had no idea what they were or where they were, except they allowed pokémon to access special powers in new forms and were hard to come by.

In the middle, overseeing everything going on in this room, there was a guy with short green hair and he was fairly tall. He wore long white boots, black shorts, A flat-cap, a black polo shirt and finally long white gloves. He probably had a red R on his shirt, too. None of them could see that at this point, so it was just a guess. He was also wearing a smirk, though it didn't quite reach his eyes.

"That has to be the boss of the mission: I'd expect he's an admin or executive: don't ask which one's higher because I don't know," Ryan whispered.

"We have no chance against him!" Misty exclaimed quietly.

"Executive and admin could be the same rank," Ash unhelpfully suggested.

They then entered the room (only a little) feeling nervous. How long until the police arrived? They knew with even ten grunts and an admin who was probably very powerful, they wouldn't last very long. If they were defeated before the stronger trainers came, they were done for.

"What shall we do then?" Misty asked, impatiently.

"Well, we came here to get rid of them," Brock said, though looking nervous.

"Yes, but how long will we last?" Ash asked, deciding he did not want to go and battle those rockets, as he had a bad feeling about that idea. They walked away from the room to discuss this, and Ryan and the other two were having similar thoughts.

"I don't kn—Huh?" Ryan started but stopped and they all turned as they heard footsteps. They turned to see their pokémon (who had been getting rid of grunts) getting rid of grunts, Skyla, Richie, and a group of trainers; there were quite a few, though not that many considering how popular path was for people to take.

Ash didn't think he knew any of them, which was a relief: he couldn't stand the idea of Leaf or even Gary being held hostage by Team Rocket. They could have Damien though: Ash didn't know him at all, but from his encounter that boy was horrible.

"Are these your Pokémon?" a girl with short bobbed green hair and a purple fedora asked. Ryan then noticed with the exception of Sparky, Skyla and Richie had no pokémon out: Skyla (at least) must have returned woobat already-there was a possibility Richie only battled with Sparky and had returned Happy.

"Yes," Ash, Misty, and the other two nodded.

"Well, thanks to them and your friends, we could get free and get our Pokémon back," a bug-catcher said.

"What now?" another asked.

"Two choices," Ash said. "One, we go and face the admin and ten or so grunts in the next room and risk getting royally trounced and re-captured. Or two, we wait for the help that should be coming."

Brock and Misty looked surprised about this, but they thought considering there were other people now involved, maybe it was for the better. It was a sensible and the most obvious idea, just they did not expect Ash to say it: then again, he was so mature in some ways and so immature in others, so who knew?

Skyla glanced around, and then said, "I know I wanted to defeat than before, think we should do your second idea. I don't know about anyone else, but I don't want to get captured. I don't want to risk losing my friends!"

"We should watch them and if they try to move on, try and distract them," an older trainer suggested.

"Great idea," Ash nodded.

Then he and Misty returned Pidgeotto and Staryu. He and Brock returned Butterfree and Zubat a few minutes later when they returned, looking a bit tired and beaten, but still plenty of fight. All the while, the trainers nervously glancing around, hoping Team Rocket didn't hear them. They should have gone further from the room hosting the Admin: it would have been safer.

Right then, there was a loud bang, shouting, and pokémon cries and humans crying out. Something had happened; someone had arrived. Brock was delegated to see what was going on. Meanwhile, Cassidy and Butch came and found them, along with fifteen grunts and then a reluctant Jessie, James and Meowth trailing behind them. They looked like they wanted to turn tail and run, but were not quite brave enough.

"Get them!" Cassidy cried, releasing a Drowsy.

"Go!" Butch cried, releasing Ash's favourite (not) Pokémon: Raticate.

"Phanpy!" Ash cried, releasing Phanpy while everyone else released a pokémon. The Team Rockets who attacked them didn't stand a chance, even with multiple Pokémon.

Ash faced Butch's raticate: he did not know how that happened. Phanpy used a rollout attack, and raticate dodged then used quick attack. Ash called for Phanpy to use rollout again, and this time they hit, however, after hitting the third time, Raticate fought back with bite, meaning Phanpy couldn't escape.

"Phanp!" Phanpy cried in pain.

"Use natural gift!" Ash called, forgetting he did not have a berry: as a result, it did not affect. Ash sure remembered that then.

"Now! Quick Fang!" Butch called, calling for a combo, which was probably a quick attack combined with a hyper fang or something similar.

It was exactly what Ash had thought, and Phanpy was flung away from the rat: well, that worked for Ash. "Bulldoze!" Ash cried, using a move to help the other trainers as well.

Several of the rocket pokémon fainted as a result, sadly not Raticate, or at least not yet. A few moves later it fainted, though.

As Cassidy, Butch and the other grunts ran away, Jessie, James and Meowth cried, having not battled, "We're sorry! Let us go!" then they ran away after their friends/workmates. That confused everyone, but Ryan did not find it that surprising.

Right then, Brock returned, missing out on the fun and not having much idea on what he missed out on. Looking around he could work it out. "The Pokémon G Squad and the Elite Four have come!" he cried, shaking his head and forgetting about what the others could have been up to.

"Really?" Richie cried, sounding surprised. He hadn't expected all those fancy people to come, just the police force and maybe one or two fancy trainers such as the nearby frontier brain and a veteran trainer.

"Yep. You should come and see for yourself," Brock suggested.

Everyone nodded. After returning their pokémon and thanking them, then they approached the next chamber. Though Brock told them it was safe to look, a few were fearful they'd get captured, again, so they were careful, but not that careful as they would have been if Brock had not said that.

#################

Brock was right, though no one had doubted him: they were just been cautious. They had no reason to suspect he was secretly part of Team Rocket, and there was no way he could be convinced in that sort of time: but just because they believed him doesn't mean they believed him.

Twenty people in all had arrived since before, and it was twenty more than what was here earlier. Most of the twenty were wearing a dark red outfit with a big G on the front, and best of all: they had capes. Skyla, if no one else, like the capes: she thought they looked like superheroes, and she loved superheroes.

That aside, this is the Pokémon G Squad. They even had their leader, and the regional champion of Kanto and Johto, Lance. It was amazing to see him in the flesh. Every single trainer here had watched at least one of his battles, if not multiple: Ash had watched as many as he possibly could, and he had spent a lot of time picking up techniques and other things from his battles, too.

Agatha, Bruno, Lorelei, and Blaine were there as well: the elite four. Ash was surprised to see Blaine, as he thought he'd retired. Then again, he could have to stay on until they get a replacement, or he hadn't left yet but was leaving, or just maybe Ash's brain didn't remember correctly. Any of those, even the last one, could be possible.

"I'm glad we didn't go in there: we would have been flattened in a matter of seconds," Misty said as Blaine's Magmortar defeated several Golbats with one fire blast: amazing, no one had ever seen that happen before, at least not in the flesh.

Despite the fact the G Squad and Elite Four were much stronger, the power of the admin, executive; whatever they're called, was made clear, and the other grunts were pretty strong too. Especially a female one with a shiny Ninetails: that was a pretty powerful pokémon. There was something familiar about her, but Misty couldn't place it. She suspected she was someone important: if so, she was acting as a spy or quite possibly a government traitor. However, Team Rocket was defeated fairly quickly, but the fight was rough and all the attacks were powerful.

"Yeah," Ash, Richie and Skyla agreed whole-heartedly. Everyone else was having thoughts along similar lines. What was amazing was that the machines and boxes with fossils cleaned up or the yet to be cleaned up rocks had not been damaged by a hit or destroyed. Ash wondered if there was psychic-type behind that, as there were a few psychic pokémon battling, or though some could be invisible, too.

During the fight, a stray grunt tried to make off with a bag of fossils, but Ryan's Kadabra stopped him in his tracks and grabbed the bag before he and the hiker jumped the grunt and tied him up. A G Squad member saw this and gave a thumbs up, making them both blush: not every day you got approval from a member of the Pokémon G Squad!

Twenty minutes later, everything was over. The rockets were arrested and taken off, and several members of the G Squad came over to the younger trainers and asked them questions, then checked them over for injuries and made them check they hadn't lost anything. After that, the trainers were allowed to leave, not without being told Ash, Skyla, Richie, Brock, Ryan, Misty and the rest of the trainers were in for a reward.

Ash, Skyla, Richie, Ryan, Misty and Brock were getting something other than a little bit of money, much to their surprise. They all got told to try and avoid engaging with Team Rocket were possible, and only do something like this happened again, and even then they still advised against it.

"Wait up, youngsters," someone called out as they started to leave. The trainers sprung around to see Agatha was still here: they thought she had gone with the rest of the elite four after arresting the Rockets: Gloria and Kebin of the G squad had questioned them and checked them over.

"Sure. But why Mrs Storm?" a girl with short purple hair asked. Ash didn't know what she was called. Agatha's surname was Storm, though no one was sure what her maiden name was. They assumed it was a married name, with her being a Mrs and all, but there was a chance it wasn't quite like that.

"A few of them got away, girl: they had friends who attacked us, and I want to accompany you to the base of the maintain, just in case they are still hiding among the rocks or in one of the caves," Agatha said sourly. She was not very happy, and she looked like she'd like to go and murder someone, or at least set her gangar on them: debatable on which one was worse. Now, Ash hoped to not battle it for a long time, as that thing was a monster.

"How did they get away?" Skyla and the green-haired girl, Lily, asked.

"We were ambushed, plain and simple: sometimes even the best can get taken by surprise and defeated. Several members escorting the rockets were pushed over, allowing them to escape," Agatha explained, sounding very sour, (still.)

"In that case, we would be glad and thankful," the bug-catcher, Antony, said.

As they walked with Agatha, a few people asked her questions to do with Pokémon training, but Ash meanwhile, thought. Apparently, not all the trainers who had gone through Mt Moon had been captured, only the young and promising-looking ones: the grunts battled the trainers, then captured them if they were any good, otherwise left them lying there after stealing their pokémon. Gloria assured them the pokémon would be given back, much to his at least, relief.

It was obvious that they were after new recruits. While some were just robbed of their pokémon, others were allowed to pass through untouched, though they were directed down another path or went there on their own. But other than fossils, maybe mega stones, and new recruits, what were they up to? Ash asked Misty that question.

"Not much is known about the goals of Team Rocket. Whatever it is, it can't be good," was all she replied with. Misty was as stumped as he was, in all honesty. She had tried and tried to work out it, and she didn't manage it.

"Agatha," Misty called to the ghost master.

"What?" Agatha asked.

"Do you have any idea what Team Rocket's agenda is?" Misty asked.

"They want to take over the world and perhaps get rid of the rest of us. Lance thinks they are just a gang out to make money, but I've heard the words and whispers and I happen to agree with them. I have listened to insiders and gossips, and I told him. But did he listen? No! But, you young people! You never listen to us older ones anymore," Agatha said, quite sore on the matter.

Everyone believed her, and most shivered: after seeing what TR did firsthand, most were willing to believe that. The oldest of them was the hiker, John, and he was middle age but had not seen many of the horrors of this world. Hardly any of them, most being Ash's age, would have never considered people murdering others and taking over the place. Ash had to admit it: it was a scary thought.

Getting excited when they finally got out of Mt Moon, and Agatha stayed with them until they were down onto the none-mountain terrain, Agatha said, "Now, it is half a day's travel from here to the crossroads. One goes to Cerulean City, the other is a route around and eventually loops down to Vermillion City. I'd imagine most of you would be going into the city, though."

"Yes, that's right," Skyla nodded, and most the others nodded. The bug catcher and the green-haired girl were the only ones who didn't. Brock and Misty were unsure: they would have to talk to Ash. Misty hoped Ash would wait, as she didn't want to go there, and a few months and she could battle him and give him a badge.

"Very well. I'd suggest travelling together to that point. Might as well: it is a pretty straight route with not a lot going on," Agatha suggested.

"We will probably stop overnight, though," Richie said, glancing at the sun that was close to setting.

"Probably a good idea, everyone needs rest and travelling at night is not the safest. Now, I will see you again soon: train hard, young ones! I want to see some of you try and challenge the elite four before I retire. That will not be long now," Agatha said, bidding her farewell.

"Bye!" the others cried, waving. They turned and walked off, taking the trail that would take them to Cerulean City.

Agatha smiled as she watched them leave: she believed the kids would do great things, especially the black-haired boy, Ash, she thought he was called. Although, she could see a lot of potential in the Pikachu boy, too.

##################

An hour and a half later as the sunset, the trainers stopped. Several tents were set up in a circle, and in the middle, there were chairs and logs, then a large fire with several pots over it. The green-haired girl whom Ash discovered was called Lily Thornbury, and the Hiker named John Mclimer were helping Brock make dinner. There were six other trainers: Antony Gregger, Chess Miles, Sybil Brown, Shauntal Spirit, Rose Smith, and Draconiren (Draco for short)Mortis, and they were mostly playing card games or playing with their pokémon or grooming them. Meanwhile, Ash and Misty chatted to Skyla and Richie.

"So your from, from… what was it again?" Ash said, embarrassed he had forgotten were Skyla was from.

"Seriously?! I just told you! Unova!" Skyla exclaimed, huffing annoyedly.

"Ah! That's right! There isn't a league there, is there?" Ash asked.

"No, there isn't. Some people are wanting that to happen, though, including my mother. Sadly, as of yet, it isn't going very far: in the meantime, people like me have to travel to other regions. I'm from Mistralton City, which is a hub for planes arrive at, local and international flights. My father is one of the chief pilots!" Skyla boasted.

"Wow? Really? Can you fly a plane then?" Richie asked, looking at her in awe. He thought it would be cool to do that.

"Yep! I love flying-types and flying planes! I am going to be a pilot too, one day," Skyla nodded. After that, they helped feed the Pokémon.

Skyla had four pokémon: a Tranquil, Woobat, Ducklett and Fearow: tranquil and ducklett were Unova Pokémon, as was woobat, but she had caught that here. Richie had his Pikachu, which was his starter, then he owned a butterfree and a charmander. He liked nicknaming his Pokémon: Pikachu was called Sparky, Butterfree was Happy, and Charmander was Zippo Zippo was close to evolving.

As they ate, Richie asked, "So who's entering the league? Well, planning on it?"

Lily, Antony, Brock, and Misty were the only ones who gave a firm no. Lily wanted to wait a year before she did them, and Antony wanted to become a Coordinator, which was an unusual choice for a bug-catcher. He had entered one contest but hadn't got a ribbon yet. He was heading to a town called Violet Village: between Cerulean City and Vermillion City, there was a contest happening there: he had to take the route around Cerulean City to get there. He would then head to another one in Vermillion a short time after. Rose was unusual as she wanted to do contests and gym battles, but everyone wished her luck besides that.

They chatted for a while, and laughed at jokes, mostly John's. Eventually, everyone started to get tired, so they all turned in for the night. It had been an eventful day, and for a lot of them, it was quite traumatic, and some of them had been captured for a couple of hours and days even.

Before that, Misty and Brock asked Ash, "What are we going to do, now? Travel wise, as there is a choice up ahead."

"We're going straight to Vermillion City: you said you did not want to go to Cerulean, and you can battle me and give me my badge in a few months, so why not go around?" Ash said.

The other two nodded, and Misty was relieved: she was glad Ash had said that. She shouldn't be surprised: Ash was a good friend, and a smart one. She knew he would not do something they did not want to know as long as there was a reason he thought was good and he could do that.

* * *

**Because there are so many great pokemon beyond Unova, the regions don't exist but the pokemon may appear, and trainers from those regions will appear, with the explanation being 'from a faraway region.'**

**I've also decided to make each region a separate story, as these stories are going to be long, and it will be easier for the readers to keep track of that way. Orange Islands will be included into Kanto and Battle frontier Hoenn. **

**I'm out now. Bless you all and have a great day/night!**


End file.
